
Class JLi 



BookXiS-i 



HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 



HISTORICAL ESSAYS 



AND REVIEWS 



BY 

MANDELL CREIGHTON, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Etc. 

SOMETIME BISHOP OF LONDON 



EDITED BY 

LOUISE CREIGHTON 






LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 

NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 

1902 



^v 









PREFACE. 

I CANNOT claim that there is any special con- 
nexion between the paperswhich I have collected 
in this volume, but they illustrate different sides 
of Dr. Creighton's activities. The earlier ones 
were written during the years which he spent 
in a quiet country parish, when he not only 
studied the history and literature of Italy and 
the characteristics of the district in which he 
lived, but was able occasionally to enjoy some 
weeks of foreign travel. A visit to Rimini 
roused his deep interest in the wonderful monu- 
ment to the art of the early Renaissance period 
which Gismondo Malatesta raised there. The 
article on **The Italian Bishops of Worcester" 
was written during the years when he was 
Canon of Worcester and loved to study every 
point connected with the history of his beloved 
Cathedral. It appeared in the ''Report of the 
Worcester Diocesan Architectural and Archaeo- 
logical Society," by whose permission it is in- 
cluded in this volume. The paper on ''The Har- 
vard Commemoration " was written by special 
request for the Times, immediately after the 



vi PREFACE 

function in which, as the representative of his 
Cambridge College of Emmanuel, he played 
an important part. I have thought it best to 
leave it exactly in the form in which it was 
written. The paper on the Moscow Corona- 
tion commemorates one of the most interesting 
episodes in his life. 

I have added four of his reviews from the 
Historical Review, which deal with important 
books bearing on the periods in which he was 
specially interested. 

The articles on " Dante," " ^neas Sylvius," 
" A Schoolmaster of the Renaissance," " A 
Learned Lady of the Sixteenth Century," and 
" The Northumbrian Border," were first pub- 
lished in MacmillarCs Magazine; that on " A 
Man of Culture " in the Magazine of Art ; 
on "John Wiclif" in the Theological Review; 
the article on " The Harvard Commemoration" 
in the Times ; that on " The Imperial Corona- 
tion at Moscow " in the Cornhill Magazine; and 
that on " The Fenland " in the Journal of the 
Royal Archceo logical Institute of Great Britain 
and Ireland. I have to thank the respective 
editors for their kind permission to reprint them. 

LOUISE CREIGHTON. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Dante, Part I . . . i 

Dante, Part II. 26 

^NEAs Sylvius, Part 1 55 

^NEAS Sylvius, Part II 79 

A Schoolmaster of the Renaissance .... 107 

A Man of Culture 135 

A Learned Lady of the Sixteenth Century . .151 

John Wiclif 173 

The Italian Bishops of Worcester .... 203 

The Northumbrian Border 235 

The Fenland 266 

The Harvard Commemoration 281 

The Imperial Coronation at Moscow .... 297 

REVIEWS. 

The Renaissance in Italy, J. A. Symonds . . . 330 

II Principe, Machiavelli, Edited by L. A. Burd— 
Life and Times of Niccolo Machiavelli, Pro- 
fessor Pasquale Villari 335 

Caterina Sforza, Count Pasolini 341 

State Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., Edited 

BY James Gairdner 348 



r DANTE. 

I.— HIS LIFE. 

There are two chief divisions of great imaginative 
artists. The one class consists of men who, with 
hardy and robust temperament, go forth into the 
world of nature and of man, and feel and know it as 
it really is. Gifted with strong passions and keen 
susceptibilities, they seem to move with the world 
around them, exulting in its joys, weeping with its 
sorrows, themselves in all things part of it. Such 
men, great as they may be, are still even as other 
men are — differing only from others in that their 
feelings are stronger, their enjoyments keener, their 
sympathies more intense, and so their expressions 
more vivid, more real, more entire. The other class 
consists of those who, while living in the world, are yet 
not of it ; whose intellect is stronger than their passions ; 
who, while they act, are yet engaged in analysing the 
action ; who can never live solely in the present, for 
they are overshadowed by the past and are peering 
into the future ; who can never enjoy the moment, 
for they can never know what it may bring forth. Of 
the first, the receptive and representative class, we 
may take Titian and Shakespeare as the two greatest 
examples : in the second, the reflective and analytic 
class, Lionardo and Dante stand out supreme. 

1 



2 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Shakespeare, bred in the quiet of a country town, 
then leading a roving careless life in London, felt 
through the fulness of his mighty nature the strong 
passions, the bold aspirations, the awakening glories 
of his stormy times, and as he moved amongst men 
his heart rose up to meet their longings. Though in 
himself obscure and little noticed, he became in soul 
one with the mighty prince as with the lowly peasant ; 
he felt with all and knew them as they were, and the 
spirit of his own age and of all ages breathed through 
him, and as he saw he felt, and as he felt he wrote, 
until he had mirrored in his pages the heart, the 
feelings of universal man. If we ask what he was in 
himself, we get no answer : we cannot say that one 
character, more than another, was his own. He him- 
self is nothing, his work is all. 

Far otherwise is it with Dante. As we read his 
works we can never lose sight for a page of the author, 
of his character, and of his position. Dante gives us 
with unflinching openness the record of his own soul's 
life, of its agonies, its troubles, its fiery trials. He 
gives us the history of his own age and of its politics, 
gives us his own opinions, pours out the ripeness of 
his own knowledge and of his own thought, till the 
age in which he lived stands out in all its details 
illumined by his genius. And amid the surroundings 
of which he has given us such full knowledge, we see 
Dante himself standing out, colossal in the might of 
his individual intensity and force, like some majestic 
rock round which the waves of the world's tumults 
have raged horribly, but have only rent it into 
grander forms, and by washing off the crust of earth 



DANTE 



3 



have shown the eternal strength of its founda- 
tions. 

Hence it is impossible to consider Dante's writings 
apart from his life, and the times in which he lived : 
his works give us a faithful chronicle of his inner life, 
and in his outward actions he forms a striking feature 
of his own age. To understand Dante's works we 
must know something of his life and times : and the 
more we understand Dante, the more do we learn to 
appreciate the full meaning and importance of his age. 
The internal politics of the Italian cities cease to be 
uninteresting. The chronicles of feud and faction, of 
which Italian history seems to consist, assume im- 
portance as they gain in meaning, and we see the 
eternal conflict of principle which underlaid them. 
The Theology, the Philosophy, the Science of the 
Middle Ages cease to be simply dull and unin- 
telligible jargon, when we see how Dante thought 
through them, and before the breath of his genius the 
dry bones still live and move for us. 

All poets are better understood by a knowledge of 
their life, and of the events in which they took part : 
but especially is this knowledge necessary in the case 
of Dante, if we would understand him at all. Dante 
begins from himself and from the occurrences around 
him. The facts of his own life he so transfuses by 
the intensity of his feeling and the profundity of his 
thought that, while himself remaining clear cut in 
his individuality, he still swells into proportions so 
gigantic that he becomes a symbol of the life of 
man. So, too, his time, with all its interests, though 
exclusively Italian and mediaeval in details, expands 



4 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

into a type of every age, with its political and social 
problems clearly traced. 

Hence it comes that Dante demands and repays 
study and attention. Many of his beauties are open 
to all ; much meaning, much instruction, is found by 
almost all who read him with any care. On the other 
hand, he lends himself to many different interpreta- 
tions, and no one would venture to say that he under- 
stood him thoroughly. During the six centuries that 
have passed since Dante wrote, he has been understood 
and interpreted in many different ways, and almost 
every class of earnest and active men have claimed 
him as their own special exponent. In truth, the 
greatness of his meaning lends itself to almost every 
partial interpretation. If, however, we would en- 
deavour to understand that meaning in its fulness, 
and go beyond the arbitrary limits which our own 
interests would otherwise assign to it, we must begin 
by an attempt to see the writer's character, and feel 
the influences under which it grew. So we too may 
grow with it, and feel, as Dante did, the individual 
life and the particular time fade into colossal symbols 
of the life of man and the development of the ages. 

Dante degli Alighieri was born in Florence, in the 
month of May, 1265. His family was one of old 
nobility. It is probable that he was born while his 
father was in exile with the rest of the Guelfic party, 
so that his cradle was overshadowed by a presage of 
his own fate. In two years' time, however, the Guelfs 
were restored, and Dante's father was again in Florence, 
holding a high position in that busy city, which the 
great crisis of the war between Pope and Emperor had 



DANTE 5 

stirred into intellectual as well as political and com- 
mercial activity. Italian politics were indeed difficult 
in those days, for every Italian city was a little republic, 
and had to settle for itself which side it would take in 
the great conflict. Every citizen felt that his own 
fortunes and those of his city depended on his own 
political activity and success. Let us try to under- 
stand the political principles which divided them. 

Mediaeval Italy had inherited directly the traditions 
of Imperial Rome ; its ruler must be still, as of old, 
the Emperor, the great ruler of the world : yet the 
Emperor, whom Italy recognised from time to time, was 
the German King in whose election she had no voice. 
To his power she yielded all titular respect, while 
asserting continually against it particular privileges 
and special rights. Italy, in this strange way, and 
with these strange restrictions, was still the seat of 
the Roman Empire, and was still inspired by the 
old political ideas of Rome. But the Empire alone 
did not direct Italian politics. A new power had 
emerged in the days of Constantine, for which Rome's 
old institutions had not provided a place. The 
Empire had become Christian ; men had learned that 
they must live for another world as well as for this ; 
the State could no longer supply all man's wants ; 
the Church had arisen, and claimed by its organisation 
to provide for the spiritual, as the State for the temporal, 
wants of man. 

The organisation of the Church had gradually ap- 
proached more and more in form to the organisation 
of the State. Rome became the head of the Universal 
Church, as she was of the Universal State. One Pope 



6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

and one Emperor — these powers were to sit side by side, 
and Christendom was to consist of provinces subjected 
to their authority. A great ideal, but difficult to realise, 
for disputes soon arose hard to be settled. What 
was temporal, and what was spiritual ? what belonged 
only to the Church, and what only to the State ? 
How were the two powers to be kept independent, 
yet united ? For two centuries war raged in Italy 
to solve this abstract question, which still had a 
terribly concrete meaning. It was a war which be- 
came intenser and more bitter as it went on — a war 
in which the spiritual power learned to use only 
too skilfully temporal weapons — a war in which re- 
ligion suffered more from its champions than from its 
foes— a war in which the Church became secularised 
in heart and soul, till a mighty revival found its ex- 
pression in St. Francis of Assisi, round whose new 
Order, rather than round the old ecclesiastical system, 
the spiritual aspirations of the men of the thirteenth 
century clustered and grew. This struggle with all 
its results is mirrored in the pages of the Divina 
Commedia. At present all I wish to notice is, that 
in this war both parties appealed for help to the 
Italian Towns, which prospered and increased in 
consequence. At last the people of the towns tended 
to side with the Pope, as being more Italian, while 
the nobles sided with the Empire. Then came the 
victory of the Pope, the fall of the great Emperor 
Frederick II., and the extinction of the Suabian house. 
The Pope called in the French to his assistance, and 
made Charles of Anjou, brother of St. Louis, his 
vassal king in Naples and Sicily. The Imperial power 



DANTE 7 

was broken, and the Italian Towns of the north, of 
which Florence was one of the chief, might settle their 
questions of internal politics as seemed to them best. 
The hated Germans were gone, the power of the 
Ghibelline nobles was destroyed. There was a slight 
breathing space of quiet before they were to find that 
the friends of the Church could be more cruel, more 
perfidious, than its foes ; that the treacherous greed 
of France, the Pope's champion, was worse than the 
impetuous ferocity of Germany, the Pope's foe. 

Florence was at this time a busy, bustling town, 
one of the chief commercial cities in Europe, with 
many industries. Already it had begun to show signs 
of the luxury and refinement, the mental cultivation 
and intellectual activity, which were soon to establish 
it for nearly three centuries as the capital of European 
art and literature. Here is a description from an old 
chronicle : — 

" Built under the auspices of Mars, rich, exulting in 
an imperial stream of sweet water, with temperate air, 
sheltered from hurtful winds, and, though poor in 
territory, abounding in useful produce : well populated 
also, and by its air encouraging increase of population : 
its citizens well-mannered, its women beautiful, and 
knowing how to deck their beauty : its buildings most 
beautiful : a city full of needful arts beyond all others 
in Italy, so that many came from distant lands to see 
it, through the goodness of its trades, its arts, its 
beauty, and its adornments ". 

In such a city, and under such conditions, there 
were endless possibilities of distinction before the 
young Dante. A slight incident, that would in others 



8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

have passed for a mere boyish fancy, gave his deeply 
susceptible mind a form for its imaginative longings, 
and stamped him as a poet. At the age of nine he 
accompanied his father to a festivity at the house of 
a rich merchant, Folco Portinari, and there saw his 
daughter Beatrice, a child of eight years old. She 
was attired in a dress of the most noble colour, a 
subdued and goodly crimson, and at that moment, 
says Dante, " the spirit of life, which hath its dwelling 
in the secretest chamber of the heart, began to tremble 
so violently that the least pulses of my body shook 
therewith ; and in trembling it said these words, ' Ecce 
deus fortior me^ qui veniens dominabitur ' " ^ (Behold 
a god stronger than myself, who comes and shall bear 
mastery). The vague longings of the boy:;ish heart 
found in the fair young face of Beatrice a centre round 
which they might gather, an image which they might 
worship, a bodily shape which might express to them 
their meaning. All the unrecorded aspirations, all 
the beautiful imaginings of youth, which flit before 
the eyes of all, but perish before they find expression, 
and are forgotten entirely by the mature man as his 
soul has hardened and the stern forms of thought 
have dispelled the phantoms of the imagination, — 
these, in their most splendid forms, found in the image 
of Beatrice their home and habitation. 

So with this background of lovely fancies in his 
heart, the boy mused, and read, and learned. He 
sought from time to time to see Beatrice, and gaze on 
the face of that " youngest of the angels," and find in 

^ Vita Nuova. Translated by D. G. Rossetti. 



DANTE 9 

those features the record of all his first dreams of 
beauty, his noblest thoughts and highest aspirations. 
Each time he saw her, she assumed to him a fuller 
meaning, and her significance as his soul's record grew 
with his growth. 

He was taught by one of the most renowned scholars 
of the time, Brunetto Latini, secretary to the Floren- 
tine Republic, an old lawyer, who in exile in France 
had learned much of the world. His "dear and good 
paternal image," as he taught Dante " how man makes 
himself eternal," ^ was always fixed with gratitude in 
the poet's mind. From Casella, whose sweet strains 
could arrest in Purgatory the souls who were hurrying 
to accomplish their purification, Dante learned music 
and "the use of amorous song".^ To painting also 
and the arts of design, which, under the great Arnolfo 
and Cimabue, were beginning to revive in the con- 
genial air of ambitious Florence, he seems to have 
given some attention. Moreover the poems of Guido 
Guinicelli, of Bologna, whom he calls his master, and 
the master of all those his betters who ever used 
" sweet and graceful rhymes of love," ^ stirred him to 
generous emulation. 

So he grew up in body and in mind till, when he 
had reached his eighteenth year, his mingled thoughts 
and feelings became articulate, and the poet nature 
found its expression in song. After meeting Beatrice 
and receiving from her a salutation more courteous 
than usual, he returned to his room and there fell 
asleep ; as he slept " there appeared to be in his room 

i/w/., XV., 84. ^Par., ii., 107. 

^ Ibid., xxvii., 99. 



10 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

a mist, of the colour of fire, within which he discerned 
the figure of a lord of terrible aspect to such as should 
gaze upon him, but who seemed therewithal to rejoice 
inwardly that it was a marvel to see ". In one hand 
he held a lady covered in a blood -red cloth, in the 
other hand a flaming heart. He spoke many things, 
of which Dante could understand few, but amongst 
them he said this, " I am thy master ". 

This Vision of Love Dante expressed in a sonnet 
which he spread among his friends. He was at once 
recognised as a poet, and gained the friendship of 
Guido Cavalcanti, himself an accomplished man and 
a distinguished poet, fifteen years older than Dante. 

For the next seven years we have Dante's own 
account of his inner life in that most wondrous of all 
youthful books, the Vita Nuova, the chronicle of his 
soul's devotion to Beatrice. She was to him the fair- 
est and the best of God's creatures, an embodiment of 
all that was pure and noble in life, the mistress of his 
mind. To see her, to receive her gracious salutation, 
to be greeted by her sweet smile, this was all his love 
required, and round this gathered the young man's 
glorious visions and lofty thoughts. He wished for 
no further possession of his beloved. She before whose 
glance all that was base and wicked fled away, she 
who was more like a daughter of the gods than a 
mere mortal maiden — how could Dante think to ap- 
propriate such a treasure to himself, or try to call her 
his? No such thought seems to have crossed his 
mind ; but his ethereal love received a blow, which he 
could hardly explain even to himself, when, in 1287, 
Beatrice married Simone de' Bardi. But the shock, 



DANTE 1 1 

if such there were, soon passed away, and his relations 
to Beatrice remained unchanged. She was still, as 
she had been before, the mistress of his mind, the 
embodiment in her own fair form of all he thought 
and all he strove for. Each time he sees her, each 
greeting ^he receives, his fervent fancy sets the trivial 
occurrence in a background of splendid colouring, yet 
subdued, and pure, and tender in tone, as is a picture 
of Sandro Botticelli. There is no disorder, no tinge 
of wild passion in his utterances ; all is regular and 
orderly ; his thoughts and feelings are all subjected to 
the rigid restraint of law before they find expression. 

So the young poet's inner life developed around the 
person of Beatrice, and he learned to know himself in 
the light of his love for her. Yet he was no mere 
dreamer, but a diligent student, an accomplished man 
of letters, and an active citizen. In 1289 he ^ore 
arms in the Florentine ranks at the Battle of Cam- 
paldino, when the Ghibelline party met with its most 
fatal repulse. But in the year 1290, when Dante was 
twenty-five years old, came a crisis of his life which 
shook at first his soul's foundations. Beatrice died, 
and for a while the world seemed out of joint, and the 
city seemed to sit desolate and mourning over this 
fatal loss. Dante's mind was overwhelmed with grief, 
but he abstained from unmanly lamentations and 
nourished his pain within his own breast. He dis- 
charged as before his duties to the State, and in the 
autumn of the same year took part in the war of the 
Florentines against the Pisans, and felt keenly the 
human interest of war and siege. ^ Nay, more: when 

^ Inf., xxi., 94. 



12 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

he had reached the age of twenty-seven, in obedience 
to his friends' wishes, and prompted by his own rigid 
sense of duty towards the State, he married Gemma 
de' Donati, attracted perhaps by her genuine sym- 
pathy for his distress at the loss of Beatrice. Gemma 
became his wife, and he seems to have cherished her. 
During the ten years of their Hfe together she bore 
him seven children ; but she is never mentioned in 
his poems ; she was the wife of his house and family, 
but she was not, and could not be, the mistress of his 
mind. That place had long been filled up ; and as 
Dante's writings concern only his intellectual life, it 
need be no cause for wonder that Dante never men- 
tions her or his children. 

But still the grief and pain of his bereavement were 
seated within Dante's heart too deep for any outward 
consolations : Beatrice was dead, and Dante's heart 
was filled with " dolorous imaginings ". The joy of 
his early life was gone. His simple pleasure at the 
sight of Beatrice, his contentment in building round 
her image his fervent thoughts, his joy at her saluta- 
tion, his exultation in her presence — all this was lost 
ior ever. There was left instead a dull sense of pain 
that could not be deadened — an aching void that 
could not be filled up : there was the sense of doubt 
and perplexity and weariness in life. The years that 
followed the death of Beatrice Dante looks back upon 
with shame and regret, as being a time in which he 
lost his hold on duty, and let go the simple confidence 
and trust which till now had guided him through life. 
Dante, it is true, did nothing to merit the reproach of 
those around him ; on the contrary, this was the time 



DANTE I 3 

in which he engaged in public Hfe most keenly. To 
satisfy the requirements of the triumphant democracy 
of Florence, he laid aside his nobility and enrolled 
himself in the trade guild of the apothecaries, that he 
might be eligible to civic office. His talents were 
soon recognised, and he is said to have been employed 
on several important embassies. Moreover, these years 
were years of study — study undertaken, at first, in 
search of consolation, but ending in becoming itself 
an absorbing pursuit. Dante, as he says himself, was 
like one who goes seeking for silver and finds gold. 
Still, with all this, Dante was not happy. Neither 
activity in public life, nor study in private gave him 
the peace and satisfaction he had enjoyed before, for 
the purity and singleness of his first motive was gone. 
His life was no longer lived in the midst of those 
noble thoughts and high desires which had gathered 
round the name and face of Beatrice. The pleasures 
of the world, the joys of sense, the desire for praise, 
the thirst for power, the insolence of knowledge, the 
pride of intellect — all these were motives before which 
he wavered to and fro. In the bustle of public life, 
in the business of family life, in the excitement of 
intellectual effort his first simplicity died away, and 
Beatrice was forgotten, or floated only as an almost 
disregarded phantom across the shadowy background 
of his busy life — 

He turned his steps into deceitful ways, 
Following therein false images of good, 
That ne'er fulfil the promise which they make.^ 

This is the condition of mind from which the Divina 

^ Purg,, XXX., 130. 



14 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Comniedia commemorates his deliverance. Dante is 
wandering in a wild wood, his way is stopped by 
savage beasts, when Beatrice, moved by compassion, 
sends Virgil to guide him through the dread scenes 
of the Inferno, and the purifying realms of Purgatory 
to the Paradise of God's love. When Beatrice appears 
to her lover, as he has passed out of Purgatory, his first 
feeling is one of utter shame ; he is awe-struck as a 
child before the stern majesty of an offended mother, 
and Beatrice's first words to him are words of sharp 
reproach. 

But Dante, though he might stumble, was too strong 
to fall ; he was not to relapse into the mass of ordinary 
men, and to remain swayed by the world and its allure- 
ments, by the passing life and its ambitions, by current 
opinions and the rewards they brought. He studied 
and he thought until philosophy, in the highest sense 
in which a knowledge of wisdom is a knowledge of 
God, took possession of his soul. This philosophy 
became to him a new mistress, yet not a new one ; 
for the new life of reflection recognised its relationship 
with the old life of fancy — the new world of thought 
was the same as the old world of feeling ; and Beatrice 
resumed her sway — not now the simple maiden who 
swayed the youthful heart by her beauty, but the 
stately yet kindly teacher who was to rule the manly 
mind. 

Henceforth Dante's inner struggles and perplexities 
were at an end. He had passed through the fiery trial, 
and had learned " how to refuse the evil and choose 
the good " ; he had got a foothold outside the world's 
changes ; he was no longer tossed to and fro by his 



DANTE 15 

ambition or his desires ; he had caught the meaning 
of life ; he had found the key to the world's riddle ; 
he had secured a guide whom he could trust to lead 
him through life's wild wood to the shining hill beyond ; 
he had gained the consciousness of inward freedom 
because he had recognised life's eternal law. 

I have dwelt on this not merely fancifully, but be- 
cause the significance of a poet's life — and especially 
the life of such a poet as Dante — lies not in outward 
circumstance, but in inward development. Moreover, 
this phase of Dante's mind gives us the key to one 
side of the meaning of his great work. Into this I do 
not now enter : it is enough to notice that this crisis 
of Dante's life took place in the year 1300 — the year 
in which he lays the action of the Divina Commedia. 

And indeed, if we look at the events of Dante's life 
in the world, we shall see that he required all his in- 
ward strength to guide him through the difficult paths 
of public life in Florence. The city, as it advanced in 
wealth and intelligence, and saw itself free from fear 
of outward foes, felt more keenly the pressure of social 
questions within its walls. Old family feuds, the 
heritage of the former aristocratic state, the jealousy of 
the rising commercial class against the nobles, the 
struggles of the artisans against the more wealthy 
merchants, the remnants of the old political parties of 
Guelf and Ghibelline, — all these elements of discord 
smouldered in the city, and were fanned by any trivial 
circumstance into a flame. So in the year 1300 civil 
discord waxed high in Florence. The social jealousy 
of the old noble family of the Donati against the rich 
merchant family of the Cerchi ; the blood feud founded 



1 6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

on family vengeance of the Neri and Bianchi, which 
had been introduced into Florence from Pistoia — these 
divided the minds and embittered the passions of the 
citizens of Florence. Daily quarrels disturbed the 
streets, and law and order were powerless against 
faction fights. 

In this state of things Dante became one of the 
priors, or governing council, of Florence for the months 
of July and August, 1300. This priorate Dante calls 
the source of all his woes. In it he earned the hatred 
which a wise and moderate man always receives from 
the factious and the violent. Dante wished to calm 
the city without having recourse to any external aid. 
Though himself a noble by birth, his sympathies seem 
to have been with the more democratic party — that of 
the Cerchi. He seems to have regarded it as less 
harmful than the violent faction headed by Corso 
Donati, a proud and haughty baron, who was willing 
to intrigue with the Pope to obtain influence for him- 
self in Florence. Dante's priorate was signalised by 
two great events — an open breach between the Floren- 
tine magistracy and the Pope's legate, and next, the 
impartial banishment from Florence of the most factious 
of the two contending parties. This was a measure 
which might have been effectual if it had been carried 
out consistently by the succeeding priors, but the exiles 
were arbitrarily allowed to return. Corso Donati left 
his place of banishment and openly claimed the pro- 
tection of the Pope, Boniface VIII., a bold and un- 
scrupulous politician, who was at that time expecting 
the arrival in north Italy of a French army under 
Charles of Valois, who was coming to assert the claims 



DANTE 17 

of his house to the throne of Sicily. If the Pope were 
to espouse violently the cause of the Donati, matters 
looked ill for Florence. So Dante was sent, in 1301, 
as ambassador to the Pope to try and counteract 
the machinations of party intrigue. He never saw 
Florence again. The Pope gave him equivocal 
answers, and managed to detain him on various 
pretexts at Rome, till matters had been settled in 
Florence by the arrival of Charles of Valois, the recall 
of the exiles, the triumph of Corso Donati, a reign of 
terror, and the proscription and banishment of all whom 
the victorious party feared, chief amongst whom was 
Dante. Dante felt he had been tricked by Pope 
Boniface, and his stay at Rome seems to have given 
him an insight into Papal politics which he never for- 
got. 

So Dante was now driven away from everything he 
loved most dearly — his native city, his wife, his family, 
his friends. He knew that it was for no misdoings of 
his own that this punishment had fallen upon him ; 
he had always been loyal to Florence, and had refused 
to become a violent partisan, at a time when faction 
was everything, and both parties " hungered for him "} 
He had tried to labour for the good of the State, and 
form a party of moderates who might interpose against 
violence and excess. He went forth strong in his in- 
tegrity of purpose, with a clear conscience, prepared 
to meet any blow that fortune might direct against 
him. Still, however strong he might be in conscience, 
the blow was hard to bear. Exile meant to Dante 
utter poverty, complete loss ot any sphere in which 

^ Inf., XV. 

2 



1 8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

his activity could be displayed, entire death to his 
practical energy, total severance from all his old in- 
terests, from all the overwhelming associations of his 
early days. Dante had to experience " how salt was 
the taste of another's bread ; how hard a road it was 
to go up and down another's stair "} But the thing 
that first oppressed him most was the fact that his life 
was spent amongst his fellow exiles from Florence, 
whose pitiful intrigues to procure their restoration 
moved Dante's deep disgust. With this " wicked and 
senseless company," as he calls them, he soon quarrelled, 
for they were as unable to understand him, as he was 
to sympathise with their futile schemes. He parted 
company with them and wandered forth alone, poor 
and unfriended, seeking from place to place a patron 
who would give him shelter ; searching in vain for a 
congenial soul ; hoping to no purpose that he might 
find among the princes and rulers of Italy some one 
whose mind could soar above the paltry politics of his 
little town — some one who could understand the duties 
of power — some one who would dare to face the task 
of uniting Italy, of healing her dissensions, and fitting 
her for her great position of leader of Christendom 
and mistress of the world. 

We cannot follow Dante in his wanderings at 
Verona, at Bologna, at Lunigiano — meeting everywhere 
with small comfort. In Florence the wisdom of his 
counsels would seem to have been proved ; for Corso 
Donati, his chief foe, made an attempt to seize upon 
the seignory of the city, and make himself lord of 
Florence. He failed and was put to death ; still there 

^Par., xvii., 58. 



DANTE 19 

was no hope for Dante, no steps were taken towards his 
recall. So Dante seems to have turned his attention 
solely to study, and to have shaken off the dust from 
his feet in testimony against the land that knew not 
how to use her noblest son. In 1309 he was at Paris, 
attending lectures at the University ; he is said, though 
without much probability, to have visited Oxford. 
Be that as it may, his student life was disturbed by 
the news of the election of a new emperor, Henry of 
Luxemburg. Eager hopes of a glorious future, of the 
splendid realisation of all his dreams for Italy, throbbed 
in Dante's breast. He hastened to Italy to await the 
coming of Henry in 131 1. 

The Emperor Henry VII. was the chivalrous ideal 
of all noble hearts in Italy who wished to see her 
divisions come to an end. Dante hailed his coming 
with rapture. Already in his treatise, De Monarchia, 
had he proved the necessity for one empire, whose 
seat must be in Rome, and whose power was derived 
directly from God, without any need of Papal inter- 
vention to give it further validity. Now, when this 
long-expected ruler actually appeared, Dante again 
employed his pen in his favour. He wrote an im- 
passioned letter to the princes and people of Italy, paint- 
ing in glowing colours the coming of their deliverer ; 
he wrote to Florence warning her of the coming 
reckoning for her misdoings ; he wrote to Henry 
urging him to come quickly and fulfil his glorious 
mission. "Rejoice," he exclaims, in tones of the 
noblest patriotic enthusiasm, " rejoice, oh Italy, for thy 
bridegroom comes — the joy of his age, the glory of 
thy people : dry, oh fairest one, thy tears, lay aside 



20 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the trappings of thy widowhood ; for he is nigh at 
hand who will free thee from the prison of the evil- 
doers, who will smite the workers of felony, and will 
let out his vineyard to other husbandmen who shall 
render him the fruits of justice in due season. But 
will he not have compassion ? — yea, he will have com- 
passion on all who ask it ; for he is Caesar, and his 
pity flows from the fountain of pity." 

It was the last glow of hope that shone on the exile's 
path. Henry died of a fever in 13 13, without accom- 
plishing anything that left permanent results. Any one 
who looks upon Henry's statue by Tino da Camaino, 
now standing in the Campo Santo at Pisa, and sees 
the broad head, square forehead, and high cheek-bones 
contrasting strangely with the finely cut mouth and 
sharp, delicate chin, must feel that he, too, was a 
dreamer who would never have unravelled the tangled 
thread of Italian politics, and must think it was better 
that he should have disappointed Dante's hopes by an 
early death rather than by a painful failure. 

It was a hard blow to Dante, but he had learned 
endurance in the school of adversity ; he bore it 
without repining, and found, more than before, his 
strength within himself alone. He resumed his labours 
at his great work, and found comfort in musing with 
his own heart. 

" After Henry's death," says an old biographer, 
Leonardo Bruni, " Dante spent the rest of his life in 
great poverty, in various parts of Lombardy, Tuscany 
and Romagna, under the protection of various lords." 
First in Lucca, with the Ghibelline leader Uguccione 
della Faggiuola, he stood by silently and sadly, till he 



DANTE 21 

saw him fall before the exile Castruccio Castracani, — 
a fall brought about by his own precautions to avert 
it. As he left Lucca he heard that Florence had 
recalled her exiles, if they would submit to a short 
imprisonment and do public penance. 

To Dante this was impossible : it would have been 
a death-blow to his inner self, which could not confess 
to a wrong-doing of which it felt no guilt. The misery 
" of seeing his dear country only in dreams " was not 
so heavy a weight as would have been the conscious- 
ness of dishonour falsely assumed. Dante writes in 
words of lofty scorn to a relative who besought him 
to accept the offered terms : " Is this the glorious way 
in which Dante Alighieri is recalled to his country 
after the miseries of an exile of fifteen years ? Is this 
the desert of my innocence, which all men know ? Is 
this the fruit of my long labours and the fatigues 
endured in study? Far from a man consecrated to 
philosophy is such short-sighted baseness. This is no 
way of return to my country. If Florence cannot be 
entered in an honourable way, I will never enter it. 
What, are not the sun and the stars to be seen in every 
land ? Shall I not be able under every part of heaven 
to meditate sweet truth, unless I first make myself 
inglorious, nay, ignominious to my people and my 
country ? Bread at least will never fail me." 

Stronger and stronger grew the heart within him ; 
less and less did the things of the world affect him ; 
more and more did the realm of truth open to his 
view ; and as he soared into the regions of thought, 
less and less important became the small details of 
to-day. It mattered little whether he spent his few 



22 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

remaining years in comfort ; it mattered much that 
he should not make his life a lie. So he turned his 
face away from Florence, content to live bravely. 
Henceforth he gave his attention only to his great 
work, and laboured at it incessantly till his death. 

First he abode at Verona, at the court of Cangrande 
della Scala, who had been appointed by Henry VII. 
Imperial Vicar for Italy, and from whom Dante had 
once hoped to see great political enterprises. But 
Cangrande, though kindly and genial, was not a 
thoughtful man, and Dante wearied of the luxury and 
grandeur of a life which was engaged in trivialities, 
while a noble field of action lay before it. In 1320 
Dante left Verona and became the guest of Guido da 
Polenta at Ravenna, where he might enjoy greater 
quiet, and find fewer distractions in finishing his great 
work. There, in the solemn glades of the mighty pine 
forest that skirts the sea, Dante mused and pondered 
on the lofty themes that fill the last cantos of the 
Paradiso. Still the exile's path was cheered with 
hope. That restoration, which he had vainly hoped 
to gain by outward help, might still be won by his 
own talents. When his great poem should be finished, 
" on which both heaven and earth had laid their hands,^ 
while for these many years he had grown thin with 
toil," then surely Florence would recognise that he 
was indeed unworthy to be an exile ; the cruelty 
which kept him from the fold where he was born 
would be overcome ; and by the font where he was 
baptised, in his fair church of San Giovanni, he yet 
might receive upon his brow the poet's laurel, from 

1 Par., XXV. 



DANTE 23 

a people who, though late, at last had learned his 
worth. 

Such tender yearnings, such dreams of a happy end 
of weary days still filled his heart ; but he did not live 
to see them put to the test. Almost immediately after 
finishing the Paradiso, in his fifty-sixth year, on 14th 
September, 1321, he passed "from things human to 
things divine, from time to eternity, from Florence to 
a people just and sane ".^ 

A strangely solemn feeling must come over the 
mind of any one who, wandering through the grass- 
grown streets of Ravenna, comes upon the tomb of 
the greatest of the many mighty sons of Florence, in 
that last resting-place so far away from all he loved 
with an intensity of patriotism which at the present 
day we find it hard to understand. Dante in exile 
has always been an example of the terrible irony of 
fate upon man's short-sightedness. Of this, however, 
I will say nothing ; it has been my purpose to speak 
only of the occurrences of Dante's life so far as they 
influenced the development of his genius. To this his 
exile gave the crowning seal. It came at the time 
when in mature life, and with mature powers, he felt 
his whole soul recoil before the grossness of practical 
life, with its degrading pleasures and no less degrading 
cares ; it came when he had recurred with deliberate 
purpose to the imaginative ideal of his youthful days, 
and of his boyish love, — an ideal now amplified and 
glorified by his developed thought, even as all that 
was fleshly had dropped from the image of his loved 
Beatrice, and she was a disembodied spirit who watched 

^ Par,, xxxi. 



24 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

heedfully, from on high, his soul's progress. In such 
a condition of mind, Dante, living comfortably at 
Florence, engaged in public affairs, a citizen amongst 
his fellow-citizens, would still no doubt have lived an 
inner life of rare nobility, but would have lived it to 
himself, or only in the sight of a favoured few ; he 
would never have left us the majestic picture of the 
world as transformed by his mighty mind. Dante in 
Florence would no doubt have become a great name 
in Florentine literature, but never could have had the 
same significance as Dante, the undeserving exile. It 
was adversity that brought him face to face with the 
realities of things ; from the furnace of affliction his 
beliefs and thoughts came out refined and purified ; 
his ideals endured a fierce conflict with calamity in 
which they could prevail only by their own inborn 
strength. Dante's love tended to make him a dreamer, 
Dante's learning tended to make him a pedant, but 
exile compelled him to bring his knowledge into use, 
to take his dreams as guides for life, or else abandon 
them for ever. Dante was shaken, was startled into 
self-knowledge by the blow that fell upon him. 

For a little while life was doubtful to him ; then 
his part was taken and he stepped boldly forward 
determined on his path : let fortune ply her wheel and 
the peasant his mattock ; one was to him as rxatural 
as the other, and he heeded both equally little, for he 
felt his own strength, he knew his own freedom, he 
was to himself both priest and king, and mitred and 
crowned he went upon his way over his own realm. 
Still we seem to trace his actual mind in his poem : 
gloomy, sad, and yet with thoughts of vengeance 



DANTE 25 

when he wrote the Inferno ; calmed by study and 
meditation into a repose that has ceased to feel the 
sting of misery, but is too languid to be happy, when 
he wrote the Purgatorio ; at last with mind weaned 
from the world by disappointments, soaring aloft and 
becoming etherealised in the contemplation of God's 
love, he ends his days with the adoring hymn that 
closes the Paradiso. 



26 



DANTE. 

II.— HIS WRITINGS. 

I HAVE attempted to describe the way in which the 
outward circumstances of Dante's life affected his inner 
development, till sorrow wrought out, in the long 
years of dreary exile, the aspirations which in boyish 
days love's touch had first revealed. I would now 
trace in Dante's writings his own record of his inner 
life, the workings of his mind, and the meaning of his 
pursuits. 

Dante is known amongst us chiefly as a poet, but he 
wrote also on politics, on theology, on philology, on 
philosophy. He was deeply versed in all the learning 
of his day, and was, above all other things, a diligent 
and careful student. Not only does he sum up, in his 
great work, the social and political life of his time, 
but also all its knowledge, all its thought and all its 
science breathes through his poem and takes fresh 
form from his genius. 

It is this that specially distinguishes Dante from 
all writers who have lived before or since, that he 
sums up in himself all the life of his time with all its 
problems and all its thought. His time moreover was 
one of singular interest, and likely to remain of singular 
interest to all thoughtful men ; a time not too remote 
from our own to cease to affect us, yet not so closely 



DANTE 27 

allied to our own as to wear the same form. He lived 
in noticeable days, and is himself the most noticeable 
feature of them . They were days in which the Christian 
religion still ruled over Christendom in all the grandeur 
of its ideal unity, though men had already begun to 
seek deeper than its outward rites for the sustainment 
of the individual conscience. The Roman Empire still 
claimed to rule the temporal kingdoms of the earth 
with undivided sway, though outward submission was 
already the thin cloak for the fullest assertion of in- 
dividual freedom. The growing sense of men's power 
and of the world's beauty was finding fit expression for 
its joyousness and thankfulness in song and music, in 
painting and sculpture, in the adornment of civil life 
by stately buildings and the expression of holy thought 
by fitting symbol. Italy had set clearly before herself 
life's problem in much the same shape as that which 
now it wears to us, but had set it in a frank and manly 
way, and was solving it with the straightforward 
sincerity of faith, without the perplexity that comes 
from previous failure, without the one-sided intensity 
that comes from long effort, without the languor that 
comes from disappointment. It was a time which, as 
we read the pages of Dante, we cannot fail to recognise, 
and feel with, and know to be our own ; but know 
faintly and dimly, as an old man who, aroused for the 
moment by some boy's simple enthusiasm, struggles 
to recall the experiences of his own youthful days. 

Truly Dante had many experiences from which to 
learn — lover, student, citizen, statesman, philosopher, 
exile ; travelling from place to place, now an am- 
bassador, now almost a beggar ; mixing with all, yet 



28 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

always superior to all ; with a keen, observing eye, 
and a powerful mind that knew no rest from thought. 
The world as it was seems to have passed before him, 
and piled for him all its products and poured at his 
feet all its treasures. Dante laboured incessantly, 
and pondered deeply ; he is most learned, but his 
learning does not strike us so much as his deep 
thoughtfulness ; it was not for him enough to know — 
he must draw his knowledge into himself, and reap its 
full harvest, and turn it to his own profit, and grow 
stronger by its support. He was a poet, but his 
imagination is never allowed to wander uncontrolled : 
his fancy is not employed to mirror unconsciously his 
passions' wayward course ; rather it is only the most 
serious products of his mature thought that receive 
the stamp of his poetical treatment, and are, after 
careful sifting, sent forth as current in the mouths of 
men. It was not the lightness but the seriousness of 
Dante's mind that made him a poet ; not the ease 
with which he received outward impressions, but the 
care with which he revolved them when they came ; 
not the passion but the intensity of his nature. His 
thoughts passed beyond the limits in which they 
could be expressed by ordinary words : he must tell 
them in imaginative symbols, which he who can must 
learn to interpret and unravel for himself 

It would seem, at first sight, as if the earliest of 
Dante's works, the Vita Nuova — the story of his love 
for Beatrice, written when he was between the age of 
twenty and twenty-six — did not justify this general 
estimate of his writings, but might be classed with 
other tales of youthful love, as the genuine outpouring 



DANTE 29 

of an enthusiastic soul, which transformed the world in 
the light of its own passionate feeling, and was intent 
solely on expressing its own joys and sorrows. But 
a slight examination soon convinces us that we have 
here no ordinary love-tale, no mere overflow of intense 
passion, no expression of merely individual feeling. 
It is rather the chastened product of mature thought 
—thought quickened by feeling, but never carried 
away by it — thought working through passion and 
reducing it, without any loss to its supreme ideal 
beauty, to due subordination. It is for this very 
reason, perhaps, that Dante's love seems so inexplic- 
able, so unlike any feeling with which we are made 
familiar by modern analysis. It is not that Dante's 
love was different in its origin to that of common men. 
But Dante was not content with merely receiving 
impressions ; he took them to himself and meditated 
on them ; he did not regard them as mere vivid 
moments, fleeting and therefore precious, to be seized 
while they remained and recorded in the most forcible 
forms in which they could be conceived and imaged. 
They were not isolated forms to be gracefully arranged 
at leisure in their most striking manifestations, but 
they were to him part — the most valuable part — of 
his daily life, which, as they became part of his being, 
found noble expression from a noble mind. Their 
imaginative form was the expression of thought and 
reflection, not of feeling and passion — was the outcome, 
not of the first moments of pleasure, not of the excite- 
ment of the senses, but of the working of the whole 
moral and intellectual nature, of the efforts of the mind 
and soul to apprehend the passing emotions, and fix 



30 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

their permanent results in an enduring shape. Hence, 
after agonies of tears in the dim visions of the night, 
or in the meditative solitude of the day, the figure of 
Love, an awful yet gentle master, would detach itself 
from the surroundings of his life, and utter dark sayings 
which had to be followed beyond the verge of ordinary 
expression, and then shadowed forth in the mysterious 
forms in which the imagination could apprehend them 
in the region of poetry and fancy. Hence he says, as 
the key-note to the understanding of his book, " Albeit 
the image of Beatrice, that was with me always, was 
an exultation of Love to subdue me, it was yet of so 
perfect a quality that it never allowed me to be over- 
ruled by Love without the faithful counsel of reason, 
whensoever such counsel was useful to be heard ".^ 
And this "counsel of reason" so wrought upon his 
life that Love bred in him an overpowering sweetness ; 
and when Beatrice vouchsafed him her salutation, 
"such warmth of charity," he says, "came upon me 
that most certainly in that moment I would have 
pardoned whosoever had done me an injury ; and if 
one should then have questioned me concerning any 
matter, I could only have said unto him ' Love,' with 
a countenance clothed in humbleness".^ Such were 
his feelings, not fantastic, not unreal, not coming 
from onesidedness or weakness of nature, but only 
chastened, purified, solemnized by earnest thought, 
till all which was merely earthly had dropped from 
them, the dross was all burned up, and the fine gold, 
ten times purified in the fire, alone remained. 

1 Vita Nuova, Rossetti's translation. 
^Ibid., Rossetti. 



DAxNTE 31 

The Vita Nuova is the record of his youthful 
passion ; but it was written after Beatrice was dead, 
when the full light which deep sorrow alone can shed 
upon the past had shown him what was real, what 
was abiding in his soul's experiences. The Vita 
Nuova is no ordinary love-story, breathing unrest and 
feverish desire ; it is the careful record of one who has 
loved and knows what love unrequited, as men call 
requited, had left him as its lifelong legacy. A deep 
sense of the seriousness of his subject was present 
with Dante in every page. He mistrusts even the 
imaginative form of his poems, and tries by explana- 
tions, always obscure and often pedantic, to show 
more intelligibly his purpose in writing them. Of 
the sonnets which he wrote to Beatrice only a selected 
few are inserted in the Vita Nuova, a few others 
survive amongst his miscellaneous poems, but many 
are doubtless lost. From those which he thought 
worthy of a place in this record of his new, his regener- 
ate life, all which express repining and hopeless 
sorrow are carefully excluded. He is anxious to 
separate the deep truths of his individual self from 
all that was merely transient ; he endeavours to show 
the inmost recesses of his soul's treasure-house after 
all that is worthless or unworthy has been cleared 
away. 

Hence Dante's Lyrics express the highest form 
which Love can ever reach — Love, not in the form in 
which he appears to the ordinary man, or in the way 
in which he develops in the unreflecting mind, but in 
the highest and most abiding shape in which he can 
become the heart's possession, in the way in which he 



32 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

nestles in the mind where he is to find his eternal 
dwelling-place. 

So Dante's love for Beatrice followed her, after her 
death, into the everlasting regions, till his thought 
pressing after her was stopped by doubts and hesita- 
tions and mysteries hard to be understood, yet which 
the mind could dimly feel after, and realise in some 
way, though it could not express. '* It was given unto 
me," he says, at the end of the Vita Nuova, " to behold 
a very wonderful vision, wherein I saw things which 
determined me that I would say nothing further of 
this most blessed one, until such time as I could 
discourse more worthily concerning her. And to this 
end I labour all I can, as she well knoweth. Whereof 
if it be His pleasure through whom is the life of all 
things, that my life continues with me a few years, it 
is my hope that I shall yet write concerning her what 
hath not before been written of any woman. After 
the which, may it seem good unto Him who is the 
Master of Grace, that my spirit should go hence to 
behold the glory of its lady : to wit, of that blessed 
Beatrice who now gazeth continually on His counten- 
ance qui est per omnia scecula benedictus, Laus Deo!^ 

So with this aim before him, of finding a fitting ex- 
pression for the thoughts which Beatrice had awakened, 
for the revelation which she had made to him of life 
and the world and their purpose, Dante turned with re- 
newed interest to his studies, determined in the pursuits 
of practical life to find their full meaning. I have 
already shown how Dante's public life met with no 
success. His moderate counsels found no hearing 
with those inflamed by passionate hate. Moreover, 



DANTE 33 

he himself felt, in the retrospect of later years, that 
during the time of busy activity his nobler self had 
grown dim. Still in the cares and anxieties of public 
life Dante's mind was active and inquiring : he was 
investigating the origin and meaning of politics, the 
end of a state, the method of its good government, the 
source of its obedience. His treatise De Monarchia^ 
composed probably before his exile,^ is the first work 
of modern times that treats of the problems of specu- 
lative politics. 

In Dante's days political theory was busy with the 
dim abstractions of the Papacy and the Empire, and 
round these shadowy forms political ideas gathered. 
At the present day we talk of the Italian cities as 
Republics, and we are justified, as we look back upon 
them, in classing them as self-governing and democratic 
states. They were not, however, so regarded by those 
who lived under them. Their independence was purely 
municipal independence. They were distinct, it is true, 
one from another, but all recognised themselves as 
parts of one great political system. None of the parties 
which their politics developed looked upon these 
Republics as self-organised, or as possessing inherent 
rights to absolute self-government. Their aim rather 
was, to secure free scope for personal or party intrigue 
by weakening the central authority, by setting Pope 
against Emperor and Emperor against Pope. Their 
desire was to organise anarchy, in which they could 

1 1 regard Witte's argument, founded on the omission in the De 
Monarchia of any reference to the struggle between Pope Boniface 
VIII. and Philip IV. of France, or the writings which it produced, as 
conclusive proof that the treatise was written before 13 ii, to which 
date it is currently assigned. 

3 



34 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

pursue the small local interests of the separate towns 
to the sacrifice of any care for the common good of 
Italy. Against this view, which underlies all the 
politics of Mediaeval Italy, Dante directs his argu- 
ments. He wishes to set forth in its fulness the idea 
of a comprehensive and orderly political system. He 
wishes to free the State from the theocratic idea, to 
assert for it its proper place and its true dignity as the 
ruling power of the life of man. The greatness of the 
Imperial system, its eternal seat in the city of Rome, 
its immediate authority from God, its freedom from 
Papal control — these are the central points of Dante's 
system. His method is not our modern method ; but 
his end of peace on earth, and concord amongst all, of a 
common union for the common good, of orderly subor- 
dination to righteous law, must always be the end of 
all right political speculation and practice. He sighs 
with true patriotic anguish over the wretched waste of 
human energy in efforts for self-assertion. " O miser- 
able race of men, by how many storms and shipwrecks, 
by how many destructions must you be overwhelmed, 
while like a many-headed monster you pull in different 
ways. Behold how good and joyful a thing it is, 
brethren, to dwell together in unity." ^ 

Dante's next work, begun in the first few years of 
his exile and never finished, was a treatise, De Vulgari 
Eloquentia, about the Vulgar Tongue. Its aim is thus 
set forth in the opening sentences : " Seeing that no 
one before us has treated of the science of the Vulgar 
Tongue, whereas we see that such tongue is necessary 
to us all, since not only men, but women and children, 

1 De Monarchia, sub fin. 



DANTE 35 

strive after it as far as nature allows, we — wishing in 
some way to illumine their discretion, since they are 
now walking blindly through the streets, for the most 
part thinking what is last is first — will try in the help 
of the Word from above, to be of some service to the 
Vulgar Speech ". 

Here, agairt, it is Dante's intention that is of import- 
ance to us, not the actual value of the book at present. 
Dante had none of the materials for a science of 
Philology, but he discusses the origin and growth of 
language, the separation of the Romance languages 
from the Latin, the various Italian dialects and their 
literary capacities. Here again unity is his object — 
to form a common Italian tongue from careful observa- 
tion of the different dialects, avoiding their harshness 
and combining their beauties. As in politics he would 
have his countrymen obey one law, and submit them- 
selves to one system, so in language he would have 
them overcome their purely local usages and form one 
common and noble vehicle of speech. His object 
was in no small degree accomplished by his Divina 
Commedia, It was not the speculative precept but 
the positive example which drew his country's speech 
to assume a common form through common admiration 
of the noblest utterances that any Italian tongue had 
framed. 

Similarly, in his next work, the Convito, is the pro- 
gress of Dante's interests expressed. It was undertaken 
in his student days, and is the record of his intellectual 
labours, which were broken off, never to be resumed, 
by the news of the advance into Italy, so long forsaken, 
of the newly elected Emperor, Henry of Luxemburg. 



36 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

It is a strange book, strange both in its form and in its 
contents. Its form is that of a commentary upon some 
of his sonnets : fourteen were originally selected for ex- 
position, but only four were completed. If the work 
had been finished it would have been a mediaeval en- 
cyclopaedia without any order or arrangement. Taking 
the sonnet as his text, Dante follows out his own train 
of thought, and discusses, in the philosophic language 
of his time, such questions as arise, — the nature of 
love, the planet-heavens, the different methods of 
verbal interpretation, immortality, the nature of true 
nobility. On questions such as these he brings to 
bear all his learning, illustrates them with copious 
quotations from every side, and examines them in 
the recognised forms of mediaeval logic. We forget 
in glancing over the pages that the author was a 
poet. 

Such are the labours in which Dante was engaged 
as a preparation for the Divina Conimedia. As we 
turn over its pages it is impossible not to contrast the 
eternal value of the soul's insight with the transient 
worth of intellectual labour. Dante engaged with 
equal honesty of purpose, with equal depth of meaning, 
in his poems and in his treatises ; but his poems, the 
record of his own heart, have been among the world's 
most precious possessions since his time — his learned 
works have long ceased to do more than attract the 
notice of the curious, or win a wondering attention 
from those who are drawn to them for their writer's 
sake. The same ideas prevail in both, the same deep 
power of thought has put its stamp upon all : but 
round the one the writer's vivid fancy has woven the 



DANTE 37 

spell of his soul's perpetual presence ; the other is but 
a heap of dry bones from which all life and meaning 
have long since passed away. 

The forms of fancy may live for ever, while the forms 
of thought perish with the age that gave them being, 
and leave at the best a mass of ruins, to be used by 
new builders in the generations to come. 

It is true Dante gives us in his great poem all his 
thought, as well as all his fancy. The pages of the 
Divina Comniedia are full of philosophy, theology, 
astronomy, and natural science : but thought and fancy 
blend together, and their mixture lends the book its 
deepest meaning, and fitly represents Dante's own 
soul, and the influences in which it grew and waxed 
strong. There are many points of interest in the 
Divina Commedia ; many meanings may be given it, 
and it may be read in many different ways ; but one 
thing certainly it means — the absolute victory over all 
around it of the soul, whose source of strength is within 
itself. The passionate love of the Vita Nuova has 
led to an intellectual insight as deep as the first 
emotion was tender ; Dante's mind is as responsive 
to the stray indications of the real truth of things, as 
his heart was to the salutation of Beatrice when she 
passed him in the way. 

The Divina Commedia was the work of the last years 
of his life, after he had enjoyed, and laboured, and suf- 
fered, and thought. In it he unfolds in calm decisive- 
ness the mystery of the world's being, as it had slowly 
become manifest to his eyes. Those to whom Dante 
seems sentimental in the Vita Nuova will regard him 
as unduly stern or presumptuous in the Divina 



38 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Commedia. The two sides of his genius hold closely 
together : only deep sensibilities could obtain such 
profound insight : only one who had loved and suffered 
much could see and know much : only one to whom 
the small things of life were of momentous importance 
could understand the bearings of its mighty issues, and 
dare to follow them to their furthest point. 

The Divina Commedia has been called a vision, but 
Dante never calls it so himself; it is rather the literal 
transcript of his soul's progress and of his life's teach- 
ing, thrown into the most serious form which the 
artistic representations of his time brought before the 
ordinary mind. 

To the great sages of the ancient world life's prob- 
lem was confined within the limits of life itself, and 
their endeavour had been to introduce order into its 
confusion, and reduce its jarring elements into a system 
within which the individual might move with dignified 
and decorous freedom. The early Christians had 
looked on this life as the preparation for another, had 
found in it an awful seriousness, and had laid down 
strict rules of self-denial, by which the soul might 
enfranchise itself from its surroundings, and look for- 
ward with humble expectation for its full development 
elsewhere. Under this idea, dimly apprehended and 
fitfully acted upon, had grown up the moral life of 
Dante's time. The pleasures, the excitements, the 
passions, and the interests of which his active age was 
full, were kept in check by stern reminders of what 
was soon to follow upon them all. Startling pictures 
were drawn by the preaching friar of the torments and 
blessedness of the life to come. The sculptures round 



DANTE 39 

the arch of the doorway through which worshippers 
entered the house of God ; the bold reliefs that met 
the eye of the careless each time they passed it on 
their daily way ; the pictures or mosaics on which in 
prayer the weary heart gazed with fervent devotion — 
all these had for their favourite subject the representa- 
tion of the " Day of Doom," and the severance of man- 
kind to happiness or misery. Nay, more than this, the 
subject, terrible and serious in itself, was chosen for 
dramatic performances, not only by the Church, but 
by any society or club that wished to give a spectacle 
to the people. Here is an account, given by Giovanni 
Villani, of a Florentine May-day Festival in 1304: — 
"The Companies of Comfort throughout the city, 
that were wont to make joy and festival, assembled 
and did the best they could, or knew how to do. 
Amongst the others, those of the Borgo S. Priano, 
wishing to make a newer and more diverse amusement, 
sent out a message, that whoever wished to hear news 
of the other world should come on ist May to the 
Ponte alia Carraia. Then they arranged planks on 
boats and little ships in the Arno, and made there the 
resemblance and image of Hell, with fires and other 
pains and torments, with men representing devils, 
horrible to see ; and there were others, that bore the 
appearance of naked souls, being thrust into divers 
torments, with great crying and groaning and clamour 
— a thing loathsome and terrible to hear and see. For 
the novelty of the amusement, many of the citizens 
came to see it." There came in fact such crowds, that 
the wooden bridge gave way, and many were drowned. 
" So that," as- Villani concludes his account, " the 



40 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

amusement turned to reality, and many went indeed 
to hear news of the other world, to the great grief of 
the city." 

I have quoted this at length, to show the frank 
realism of an age, whose effort was to apprehend the 
forms that surrounded it and adapt its simple life to 
them. The Florentines shrank from nothing. They 
wished to see what life was, and they were prepared 
to live accordingly. They had no fear of irreverence, 
no desire to drop the veil and be content to go no 
farther, lest they should be bewildered. They did not 
shrink from what was horrible because it was horrible. 
They would know and understand it as fully as 
possible, and art should be employed in reminding 
them continually, and in a definite form, of what they 
genuinely believed, but were always tending to forget. 

This temper of mind, which alone can afford the 
conditions under which great works of imagination 
can be produced, must be clearly realised by the 
readers of Dante. Many are repelled from reading 
him by a shrinking sense of irreverence, of cruelty, of 
audacity, attaching to the very plan of the Divina 
Commedia. Yet Dante's subject was quite in accord- 
ance with the ideas of his own age. He was free from 
that modern form of reverence, which is founded on a 
desire not to see too clearly ; he was stern because he 
was just ; he was bold because he had no doubts. 

Thus it was that Dante took the largest and most 
comprehensive form that could be found, in which to 
express his own soul's pilgrimage in characters large 
enough for every age to read. He took himself, and 
not another — himself even such as he was, and not an 



DANTE 41 

idealised self; and brought himself face to face with 
the awful realities of the future. His individual 
thoughts and experiences should be applied to the 
highest, the deepest of human interests, should be set 
in the clearest atmosphere, and viewed in the purest 
and whitest light that could be reflected upon them. 
" Dante Alighieri, a Florentine by birth, not by- 
manners," would set forth to whoever would listen the 
lessons which life had taught him. His object, as he 
says himself, was " to remove the living in this life from 
a state of misery, and lead them to a state of happi- 
ness ''} This he would do, not in the abstract form of 
philosophy, but in the most solemn shape in which 
Art appealed to the feelings and imagination of the 
ordinary man. Himself, his own life, his own char- 
acter, his own friends, the great men of his age, the 
great questions of his day, all these are set forth and 
represented against the awful background of eternal 
destiny, where passion and triviality become impossible, 
where seriousness is at once ensured without repeated 
demands, where things lose at once the sordor of 
common life, and nothing is insignificant, where every- 
thing assumes the most gigantic proportions of which 
it is capable. 

This is the chief significance of the Divina Corn- 
media, the feature which distinguishes it from all other 
works. It takes a real individual character, surrounded 
by all the actual facts of his life ; it takes a piece of 
the world's history with all its actors, with all its efforts 
and all its ideas, political, religious, and social ; it 
detaches them from their place in the world of fact, 
^ Epistle to Cangrande, 



42 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

and erects them into a monument of surpassing 
grandeur, by representing them with reference to their 
eternal meaning, when all the world's trappings have 
been stripped from them, and they are laid bare, as 
they are in themselves. Hence comes the air of stern 
reality that the whole book wears. It was not Dante's 
purpose to produce merely a vague and general im- 
pression. Vices and virtues were alike made manifest 
in the forms of real men whose fate had a deep interest 
for his reader. His ancestor Cacciaguida tells him, in 
his course through Paradise, to smite only the lofty, 
that the force of the example may be greater.^ 

I have said that Dante nowhere calls his poem a 
vision, nor does he treat it as such. The same desire 
for reality that made him weave his poem around him- 
self, and his own life and times, has made him aim at 
vigorous reality in every point of imaginative detail. 
His narrative is given with perfect minuteness in every 
point. We have a circumstantial account of his actual 
pilgrimage through the realms of the Inferno, of Pur- 
gatory and Paradise. The Inferno is a funnel-shaped 
pit, going down to the centre of the earth, where 
Lucifer is frozen up for ever. The circles of the pit 
grow smaller and smaller, in proportion as their punish- 
ments are more severe and their inhabitants are greater 
sinners. The island of Purgatory rises out of the side 
of the earth opposite to Jerusalem, and is a sloping 
rock with terraces going round, corresponding to the 
circles of the Inferno. On the top of this rock, corres- 
ponding to Lucifer at the bottom of his pit, is situated 
the earthly Paradise, the original garden from which 

1 Par., xvii., 125, etc. 



DANTE 43 

our first parents fell. Then, leaving the earthly Para- 
dise, Dante rapidly reverses the sphere of the air, and 
passes into the planet-heavens, where are the souls of 
the blessed in the form of stars. The seven heavens 
contain each of them saints celebrated for some par- 
ticular virtue, just as the circles of the Inferno had 
been assigned to particular vices, and the ledges of 
the mountain of Purgatory peopled by penitents for 
different classes of sins. The souls of the blessed are 
the stars that people these heavens ; and as Dante 
mounts among them, they circle round him in a cease- 
less dance of joy, testifying the delight with which the 
vision of the divine love had filled them. Still onward 
and onward Dante goes, till he reaches the Empyrean, 
or motionless heaven of pure light, where he sees the 
celestial host, and fainting at the sight of the vision 
of the Trinity can say no more of these unspeakable 
things. His heart sinks under the contemplation of 
the love that rules the world, and in that all else is 
swallowed up. The reader, who has followed him so 
far, is left in possession of his secret : — 

But now was turning my desire and will, 

Even as a wheel that'equally is moved, 

The Love which moves the sun and other stars.^ 

In this mysterious pilgrimage Dante is never carried 
away by his subject to forget himself He is fatigued 
in climbing the rocky defiles of the Inferno. He is 
terrified, and clings to Virgil like a child to its mother, 
at the sight of the grotesque fiends who rule over some 
of its abysses. He toils up the mount of Purgatory, 
himself a penitent and slowly ridding himself of the 

^ Par., xxxiii., 141. 



44 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

burden of his sins. In Paradise he is led upwards by 
Beatrice, his early love, and the earthly grossness of 
his faculties often provokes her rebukes. We never 
lose sight of Dante's personal presence. Many of 
those whom he meets have been his friends in the 
other world. In the Inferno, one of his dead relatives 
hides behind an archway to avoid his gaze, and makes 
mocking gestures at him as he passes, to show con- 
tempt towards the family which has allowed his un- 
timely death to be so long unavenged. In Paradise 
Dante rejoices to be hailed by the soul of his great 
ancestor, Cacciaguida, who died on the Emperor 
Conrad's crusade — nay, such delight does he show at 
meeting so distinguished an ancestor, that he gives 
way to the paltry feelings of pride of birth, till Bea- 
trice, by her laughter, admonishes him of his unseemly 
folly. 

Nor is Dante's personality shown only thus. Much 
of his actual life is told him prophetically. There are 
many denunciations of Florentine cruelty, many as- 
sertions of his own innocence and worth, many clear 
indications of his own appreciation of the value of the 
poem on which he was engaged. Brunetto Latini, his 
old master, foretells his calamities and his glory. When 
he enters the limbo in which live the great men of 
antiquity, he is received with honour by the poet band ; 
Homer, Horace, Ovid, Lucan and Virgil hail him the 
sixth member of their illustrious circle. 

Moreover, the relation of Dante towards those whom 
he meets varies with his progress. In the Inferno he 
is superior to the tormented sinners, and behaves as 
such ; as a man possessed of a good conscience he 



DANTE 45 

feels himself superior to them ; he asks them questions 

with an air of authority, and demands an answer. He 

has been called cruel for his conduct towards those 

whom he saw in the Inferno, especially when he thrusts 

the mocking sinner under the waters of Acheron, and 

when passing through Caina, where the traitors are 

frozen up, he incautiously kicks one of the heads 

projecting above the ice, and shows no compunction 

— nay, when the head refuses to tell its name, he 

threatens to pull its hair to enforce compliance. This 

charge of cruelty is an unjust one, and shows an 

ignorance of Dante's point of view. He was being 

led, as a means for his own moral perfection, through 

the region where God's immutable decrees against sin 

were being fulfilled. Was it for him to spend the 

precious time in unavailing tears? Was it for him, 

for whom this signal mercy was being wrought, to 

venture to arraign God's justice, by daring to pity 

those whom a loving Father had condemned ? 

On one occasion Virgil bids him restrain his grief, 

saying — 

Here pity lives when it is truly dead ; 

What man is there more guilty than the one, 

Who 'gainst God's judgments dares to feel ill-will ? ^ 

Very noticeable are the two occasions on which 
Dante tells us he wept — once at the sight of the 
soothsayers, who had their heads turned round upon 
the shoulders in mockery of their imposturous attempt 
at foresight. Here Dante's tears were occasioned, as 
he says himself, by the sight "of man's image so 
depraved ". The other punishment which awakens his 

^Inf,, XX., 28. 



46 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

tears is that of the sowers of civil and religious discord, 
whose bodies are torn asunder and divided as they 
had attempted to divide others. Dante, on both oc- 
casions, weeps not through pity at the sufferings which 
he sees, but through grief at the degradation which 
might come upon the noble human body, through the 
misdeeds of the soul of which it was the unwilling 
covering. He could not endure to see the outward 
symbol of man's dignity abased. 

In like manner it is noticeable that the sinners 
become vulgar, spiteful, mean, and given to little 
bickerings, as they approach lower depths of sin, and 
as their punishments become consequently more severe. 
In the pit of the falsifiers Dante is severely reproved 
by Virgil for stopping to listen to a ribald altercation 
between two wretches, one labouring under dropsy so 
that he could not move, the other racked by raging 
fever. So too is it with Dante's fiends. They are 
not majestic embodiments of evil, but are simply low, 
contemptible, vulgar wretches, who delight in coarse 
jokes and hideous gestures, full of impotent malice, 
and regarding lying as an amusement. 

Dante had no sympathy with deliberate sin. To 
him it had none of those stately proportions with 
which more modern times have loved to clothe it. It 
was not only wrong, because contrary to Divine law, 
but it was in itself contemptible, because degrading to 
human nature. 

In the Purgatorio, again, Dante mixes with his 
equals, with those who were not deliberate sinners, 
but who were purging away their earthly dross before 
being fit for admission to Paradise. Here Dante is 



DANTE 47 

no longer a spectator, but is himself a humble penitent, 
from whose forehead, as he clambers up the mount, 
the marks of the seven deadly sins have to be painfully 
effaced. Here breathes an air of quiet and repose — a 
holy calm, a peaceful expectation of the coming of 
the time when sin's stains shall have been done away. 
Here all is love and tenderness, and each with good- 
will helps the other. Old hostilities are forgotten ; 
Charles of Anjou and Peter of Aragon, who fought 
in desperate rivalry for the fair isle of Sicily on earth, 
sit there side by side and join in the same evening 
hymn of praise. The whole mountain trembles with 
a joyous throe when a soul's purgation is accomplished, 
and a song of gladness bursts from the spirits left behind 
when a brother leaps up to depart from among them. 
Here Dante walks girt with humility, and owns that pride 
was the sin whose punishment he had most to dread. 
Far otherwise is it in Paradise. There Dante hides 
himself timorously behind his guide, Beatrice, from 
whose gaze he has to draw support for his enfeebled 
faculties, which are all unequal to endure the unwonted 
strain. Here he himself is but a lowly learner, whose 
mind, too small to comprehend all that he sees and 
hears, still struggles to gain what knowledge he can 
on every subject. He learns the reason of the spots 
on the moon, he strives to grasp the grounds of moral 
desert, to solve the difficulties of the freedom of the 
will, to comprehend the working of the Divine Will in 
the method of man's redemption. He sees the splen- 
dour of Heaven grow dim as St. Peter speaks of the 
sins of those who had in Dante's day disgraced his 
seat. He hears the failings of the Church bitterly 



48 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

lamented, and sees in the light of Heaven's fulness 
the weaknesses and shortcomings of earthly systems. 
Higher and higher as he soars, the more intense 
becomes the celestial brilliancy of Beatrice. Never in 
Paradise does he look on her as his earthly love : 
there she is entirely the lady of his mind, the source 
to him of heavenly enlightenment, till as he reaches 
the highest sphere she parts from his side to take her 
place in the adoring band which encircles God's abode. 
So all that is personal has passed away, and all is 
absorbed in the eternal Source of Love, with the faint 
vision of which the poem ends. 

Thus Dante begins from himself, and his own life 
and character and place in the turmoil and conflict of 
the world. He passes through the realms of sin, and 
learns its extreme bitterness by the examples of those 
whom he had known on earth, or those whose sins 
had left their mark deeply imprinted on the minds of 
his age. He purges himself in tRe realm of purifica- 
tion, among those whom he had loved and reverenced 
on earth, and those whose characters had appealed to 
the interest and admiration of his time. He learns in 
Paradise, among the wise and holy of all times, to 
know and understand God's purposes even as they 
are ; and the sole remnant of his earthly self is his 
youthful love, the source to his mind of all its pure 
and lofty impulses, whose touch had first revealed to 
him the divine side of life, and whose spiritual influence 
had led him to develop his soul's strength. In this 
way the teaching of his work becomes more abstract : 
the individual Dante fades away, and becomes the 
symbol of man's life and thought. 



DANTE 49 

Thus the Divina Commedia is one mighty symbol, 
and each separate part of it is full of symbolism of its 
own ; but if the general meaning be apprehended, the 
meaning of the separate parts may be readily adapted 
to it. Dante's age was one of noble symbolism, as 
may be seen at once in the church of St. Francis at 
Assisi, or in the fagade of the cathedral at Orvieto. It 
is impossible not to feel in Italy how entirely the 
religious symbolism of the next age was derived from 
Dante ; how Giotto and his school, how Giovanni 
Pisano, and through him the long line of Tuscan 
sculptors, owed almost all their didactic impulse to 
the master mind of Dante, and to the clear cut forms 
of which the Divina Commedia is full. On one point 
Dante's symbolism was curiously affected by his 
political beliefs and his historic feeling. He knew 
that his nation was half ancient after all, that Italy 
had her roots deep in the past, and that the glorious 
heritage of the old Roman world in some sense lingered 
round her still. He was severely a Christian, and 
knew no salvation for the pagan, nor any higher fate 
for their noblest souls than painless repose, where 

Rarely they spoke, with softly sounding voices.^ 

Still he felt that the new religion grew up under the 
shadow of the old Empire — as in many pictures of 
the Nativity the manger is built under the shadow of 
an old ruined temple, or, it may be, the Holy Child is 
laid to rest by some votive altar, or some memorial of 
Rome's conquering power. Hence to Dante a sanctity 
still hung round the ancient heroes of the great city, 

^ /«/"., iv., 114. 
4 



50 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

who so long had ruled the world and still claimed to 
give to Christendom its temporal and spiritual heads. 
He quotes the great men of Rome, as examples of 
virtue, side by side with saints of the Old or New 
Testament ; the indolent are warned against their 
besetting sin by the example of Mary, who rose in 
haste and went to the mountains to visit Elizabeth, 
and of Caesar, who, on his way to Spain to besiege 
Ilerda, made an attack upon Marseilles, and then 
hurried onwards. This is characteristic, it may be 
said, of Dante's Ghibelline politics ; he wished to take 
the side of the Empire and maintain its equal sanctity 
with the Papacy ; but it is characteristic, at the same 
time, of the real breadth of Dante's views, which did 
not fear to read the entire past in the light of his own 
knowledge. 

Dante's wonderful variety of interests, keenness of 
observation, depth of knowledge, great breadth of 
view, and real insight into human character might be 
illustrated by many examples of many different kinds. 
He draws a simile from the way in which the beaver 
stands with his tail in the water to attract the fish 
{Inf.^ xvii.), from frogs standing with their nose only 
out of the water {Inf.^ xxii.), from the apparent increase 
of water's speed as it approaches the mill-wheel (7;^/., 
xxiii.). Nothing could excel the clear knowledge of 
country life in the following : — 

When the hoar frost upon the earth pourtrays 
The image of her sister fair and white, 
Tho' brief time lasts the temper of her pen ; 

Then the poor peasant, who has scanty store, 
Rises and looks, and sees the country side 
All whitened o'er, — whereat he smites his thigh, 



DANTE 51 

Returns to house, and here and there laments, 
Like a poor wretch who knows not what to do. 
Soon he returns, and plucks up hope again, 

Seeing the world has wholly changed her face 
In little time, and takes his vine-wood staff, 
And forth his little flock to pasture drives.^ 

Contrast it with the following for its knowledge of 
another phase of life : — 

When players part them from a game of dice, 

The loser sorrowfully stays behind 

Going o'er the throws and learning with regret ; 
But round the winner throngs the company ; 

One goes before, one plucks him from behind, 

One at his side recalls himself to mind. 
He walks straight on, now one, now the other hears ; 

Who once has grasped his hand no longer stays ; 

So from the thronging he defends himself. ^ 

These also are very subtle in their several kinds : — 

Like as advances still before the blaze 
Over a paper upwards the brown mark, 
Which has not yet turned black, though the white dies.^ 

And like as one who dreams his own disaster, 
Who as he dreams prays it may be a dream, 
Wishing 'twere what it is, as though 'twere not so.'* 

The following, again, shows a very fine appreciation, 
which was rare in Dante's time, of natural beauty : — 

The dawn was conquering the morning hour, 
Which fled before it, so that from afar 
I caught the tremulous quiver of the sea.^ 

In this, again, his observation is still more remark- 
able : — 

^Inf,, xxiv., 3, etc. ^Purg., vi., i, etc. 

^ Inf., XXV., 64. ^Ibid., xxx., 136. 

^Purg., i., 115. 



52 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Bethink thee, reader, if among the Alps, 
The clouds have shrouded thee, through which thou seest 
No otherwise than through his skin the mole.^ 

The ancients always thought the mole was blind, 
and only in the nineteenth century have naturalists 
established that it has rudimentary eyes beneath 
membranous covering. 

Quotations might be multiplied endlessly, but these 
may suffice to show the wide scope of Dante's know- 
ledge, and the way in which he could bring it all to 
bear, however incidentally, upon his main purpose. 

I might mention many different aspects of Dante's 
genius, and point out this or that small merit, or 
defect, which the taste or sentiment of our own age 
might approve or condemn. But this is eminently 
not the way in which a poet like Dante can be appre- 
hended. It is true he is full of beautiful passages 
which are known to all, but it is not in these felicities 
of expression that his greatness lies. The real cause 
of the attraction which he has had for six centuries, 
and still has, for those who read him, lies in the vast 
comprehensiveness of his intellectual view, combined 
with the deepest and tenderest human feeling. No 
poet has exercised so wide an influence ; no writer 
has been so deeply studied, so often commented upon, 
so closely investigated. A few only in each genera- 
tion read Dante at all, but those who read him once 
are certain to recur to him again and again, finding 
each time new meaning, finding depths of serious 
teaching which they had entirely overlooked before. 
No one would venture to say he quite understood 

^ Purg. iXvii., I. 



DANTE 



53 



Dante ; no one would boast he had got to the bottom 
of him. He has satisfied so many different minds, 
and has inspired so many different lines of thought, 
that it is useless to try and bind up his meaning 
within the rigid limits of our own modes of thought 
and action. 

In this lies the secret of Dante's greatness, that he 
combines the deepest individual passion and intensity 
with mighty intellectual power and entire obedience 
to supreme law. His work is entirely individual, yet 
the system which it sets forth is a universal system. 
The life of the affections merged with him into the 
life of thought. He is entirely human, yet he passes 
with fearless steps beyond the farthest verge of what 
man's mind may reach. We know him and all his 
surroundings, — Dante Alighieri, a poor wandering 
exile, a Florentine who lived 650 years ago, with 
deep-rooted prejudices and strong loves and hates. 
But as we follow him page after page, he overcomes 
us by his immense capacities for feeling and for 
thought, and we merge his clear individuality in the 
ideal forms of wisdom and goodness. The Divina 
Cotnmedia was the first sign to modern times of the 
completely enfranchised spirit ; it still remains the 
grandest memorial of its power. Dante still shows 
us, as no other writer does, how he took the fruit of 
knowledge for his food, how he lived through life and 
overcame it, till his spirit moved in the realm of moral 
freedom which, in no figure of speech but in very 
earnest, is the earthly paradise to every toiling man — 
paradise, at whose entrance Virgil, so long his guide, 
parted from Dante — since the mere earthly reason had 



54 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

no longer place — and, parting, said to him these words 
of wondrous import : — 

Expect no more my speech nor my direction, 
Free, upright, healthy henceforth is thy will, 
And 'twould be wrong to act not at its bidding : 

So o'er thyself I give thee crown and mitre.^ 

^Ptirg., xxvii., 139. 



55 



.ENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE 

PIUS II. 

PART I. 

Once, and once only, in its history has the Papacy 
been identified with the general course of European 
literature and culture, and the experience of that epoch 
certainly does not encourage it to repeat the experi- 
ment. The Renaissance came so suddenly, and came 
from so many sides at once, that the Papacy in its 
enfeebled condition at the time had no opportunity 
for really examining it, whilst it had lost its firm hold 
upon its old traditions, and found itself committed to the 
new movement before it had weighed the consequences 
or really determined upon its policy. It was no longer 
the vigorous mediaeval power that had crushed the 
rising movements of the twelfth century, had cowed 
Abelard, had uprooted the growing literature of Pro- 
vence, had stopped the political speculations of Arnold 
of Brescia, and had reasserted its sway over the 
rebellious intellect of Europe ; but the Papacy of the 
Renaissance was the crippled power that emerged 
from the French captivity, the long schism, the bonds 
of the general councils, — emerged an object of general 
suspicion, degraded even in its own eyes, with no 
weapons but its own craftiness, with no aim but its 
own restoration, at all events in Italy, to decent respect, 



56 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

with no policy except that prevalent in Italy at the 
time — to promise everything asked, and perform as 
little as possible. 

Under such circumstances the Papacy was not dis- 
posed to add to its many enemies the men of the new 
learning : it stood in too great need of them. The 
reforming views of the Council of Constance had been 
supported by men of high reputation and great erudi- 
tion, such as Gerson and D'Ailly. The Papacy must 
have similar champions on its side ; and it was useless 
in its hour of need to look for a deeper qualification 
than a power of writing elegant Latin prose. The 
rising scholars were only too ready to offer themselves 
to any one who would appreciate their services : to 
minds exulting in the glories of antiquity the enthu- 
siasms and aspirations of the day mattered little; 
culture had made them ambitious, and they longed for 
a sphere in which they might distinguish themselves. 
They wanted money, if only to buy books : ought not 
the world to belong to the wise? But wisdom unfor- 
tunately was badly paid by those in power ; the Pope 
was more likely to appreciate it than any one else who 
had money to expend : and then at the Papal Court 
they might write letters in the style of Cicero, and 
histories in the style of Livy, and deliver orations 
equal to any of the great productions of antiquity 
on the occasion of every fresh arrival of ambassadors 
from a foreign prince. Hence came the alliance be- 
tween the Papacy and the scholars of the Renaissance, 
by which Poggio, Leonardo Bruni, Guarino, and 
Francesco Filelfo were all Papal secretaries. Even 
Laurentius Valla, in spite of his audacious use of 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. S7 

criticism in proving the falsity of the Donation of 
Constantine, was pardoned after a slight apology ; 
and honest souls like Campano were rewarded for 
sprightly epigrams and jovial manners by bishoprics 
which they never visited, and the revenues of which 
they thought needlessly encumbered by the obligation 
to wear a long and inconvenient garment and look 
solemn in public. 

The Papacy reaped for a while the advantages of 
this alliance. Rome, from the time of Nicolas V. to 
that of Leo X., was the literary and artistic capital 
of Europe ; the Popes recovered their external position, 
the open antagonism of France and Germany was for 
a while extinguished, and the Papal revenues flowed 
in securely ; but these advantages were bought at 
a heavy price. Rome, given up to art and literature, 
ceased to have much care for religion ; and Erasmus 
was startled to find in Rome that no one was considered 
to be in the fashion who did not hold some false or 
erroneous opinion about the dogmas of the Church, 
that the Cardinals made oath " by the immortal gods," 
and proved the souls of men and beasts to be the 
same. The Papacy , which had so long held fast to the 
orthodox faith at all hazards, had now fallen victim 
to a heresy worse than any she had in former times 
combated — the heresy of the Renaissance. It needed 
the voice of Luther and the defection of half Christen- 
dom to rouse Rome from its refined sensualism, and 
bring back the old severe rigid system, which won new 
victories and put forth new strength in the Counter- 
Reformation. 

The most characteristic personage in the history of 



58 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the Papacy during the Renaissance period is without 
doubt ^neas Sylvius Bartolomeus Piccolomini, Pope 
Pius II. Born in 1405 at Corsignano, a little village 
near Siena, of an old noble family, which had decayed 
owing to the democratic movement of mediaeval Italy, 
he made his way in the world solely by his own abilities 
and tact — a veritable Gil Bias of the Middle Ages, who 
saw that the world was all before him, and was deter- 
mined to use it for his own ends. In early life he had 
little to help him, as he was one of a family of eighteen, 
and in his youth worked with his own hands in the 
few fields his father still possessed ; but all his brothers 
and sisters died except two, and at the age of eighteen 
^neas, the only surviving son, left home to study law 
in Siena. Law, however, was distasteful to him, and 
his ambition soared higher than an advocate's gown : 
he preferred general literature, and was an unceasing 
student of the classics — nay, he even managed to scrape 
together money to go for a little while to Florence 
and attend the lectures of Francesco Filelfo. He 
obtained a reputation in Siena by writing Latin love 
poems, and by other small literary eftbrts, and so 
when he had reached the age of twenty-six he was 
recommended as a clever young man, well fitted to 
fill the post of secretary to Domenico da Capranica, 
who was passing through Siena on his way to Basle, 
where the Council had just begun to sit. Capranica 
had a complaint against the new Pope, Eugenius IV., 
who had refused to confirm him in a cardinalate con- 
ferred by his predecessor. 

^neas was delighted to leave Siena and plunge 
into the great world of politics ; and his first experi- 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 59 

ences at Basle showed his penetrating mind the path to 
success. He found the Council full of needy adventurers 
and place-hunters, men of culture like himself, who 
hoped in these troubled times to turn their wits to 
good purpose, and reap advantages which quiet days 
would never have put within their reach. There were 
undoubtedly many worthy and high-minded men who 
were the chief movers of the Council, but still the efforts 
for reform rested upon no sure foundation, since the 
whole movement was little more than a rising of the 
ecclesiastical aristocracy against the Papal monarchy, 
stimulated by the ordinary aristocratic desire to share 
the monarch's plunder. Hence, in spite of the efforts 
of many honourable men, the question at issue between 
the Pope and the Council soon became a struggle who 
should get the larger share in a general scramble for 
Church patronage. 

iEneas soon learned to estimate the Council at its 
true value, and also had opportunities of studying the 
condition of Europe generally. Between the years 
1432-35 he was in the service of various masters, with 
whom he visited almost every country in Europe — 
saw the weakness of Germany by attending a Diet at 
Frankfort, learned the exhaustion of France after its 
English wars, and admired the power of Burgundy 
and the wealth of Flanders ; saw the barbarism of 
Scotland ; travelled in disguise from Newcastle to 
London in the company of a justice in eyre, who little 
knew to whom he was revealing his views on English 
politics and his complaints against the feeble Henry 
VI. ; in Italy also he learned the policy of Filippo 
Maria Visconti of Milan, and saw the immense 



6o HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

influence of Niccolo Piccinino, the great leader of con- 
dottieri. So in 1436 he came back to Basle an expert 
in intrigue, and with a reputation which was sure to be 
of service. 

yEneas himself gives an instance of the Council's 
zeal for reform. He had managed to insinuate himself 
into the good graces of the Archbishop of Milan, who 
showed his appreciation of his elegant Latinity by 
conferring on him, though still a layman, a cannory 
in the church of San Ambrogio at Milan. For this 
irregular appointment the dispensation of the Council 
was necessary : true, the Council professed to be en- 
gaged in putting down such irregularities, and attacked 
nothing more fiercely than Papal dispensations ; but 
-^neas was a worthy man who had done good service 
to the Council — it was hard to refuse one who had 
such good capacities for business, so pleasant a manner, 
such ready tact, such a happy way of glozing over diffi- 
culties and settling disputes ; finally, the charming 
modesty and graceful deference of his speech quite 
decided the matter : " I ask nothing which may be 
contrary to your honour : I would prefer your favour. 
Fathers, without possession of the canonry, to a 
capitular election with full possession ". What wonder 
that a universal murmur of applause followed this 
delightful compliment, and ^neas's adversaries were 
not even allowed to speak ? 

This was ^neas's first taste of ecclesiastical prefer- 
ments : as yet he had no intention of taking orders. 
He lived in a small circle of humanists, and we know 
from his letters to his friends that his life at this time 
was one of the grossest sensuality. It was in fact the 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 6i 

utter and unrestrained character of his indulgences, 
unredeemed by any noble feeling,^ that saved him 
from the fatal crime of marriage, by which so many 
of the early humanists, before they clearly saw their 
way in life, were unfortunate enough to cut them- 
selves off from the golden road of clerical preferment. 
Principles, ^neas had none : his Basle speeches are 
eloquent, suave, and empty. When the breach between 
the Pope and Council openly broke out, and they 
excommunicated one another, ^neas, bound by his 
canonry to the Council, composed tractates, pronounced 
scathing invectives, and wrote scurrilous libels against 
the Pope ; although, as he says in his first letter of 
retractation, " I was like a young bird that had escaped 
from the University of Siena, and knew nothing either 
of the manners of the Curia or the life of Eugenius ". 
He was a literary adventurer, ready to turn his pen 
to the best account. 

In this respect he was merely a representative of 
the general character of the early Renaissance, which 
was a reaction against scholasticism, against the 
monkery and bigotry of the Middle Ages. It was of 
little consequence what side was taken, what principles 
supported — all were equally unimportant to the man 
of culture — he must only be careful to act in a be- 
coming way in public, and express himself in good 
Latin. It is very characteristic that ^neas, after he 
became Pope, still made no effort to stop the publica- 
tion of the more immoral of his youthful letters, or of 
his novel Lucretia and Euryalus ; the entire series was 

1 " Plures vidi amavique foeminas quarum exinde potitus magnum 
suscepi taedium." 



62 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

revised by him in his later days, and all were allowed 
to descend to posterity together. Pope Pius, it is 
true, wrote a letter of penitence, to be published with 
the rest. He wrote them, he says, when he was young 
in years and in mind — (yet Lucretia and Euryalus was 
written when he was forty) — they contain moral and 
edifying doctrines, to those who will use them aright. 
" What we wrote in our youth about love, avoid it, O 
men, despise it. Follow what we now say, and believe 
the old man more than the youth. Regard not the 
layman higher than the priest. Reject ^neas ; re- 
ceive Pius " (" ^neant rejicite ; Pium suscipite "). 
Really, these letters were among the most popular 
that ^neas wrote, and he was proud of them ; his 
literary fame required their circulation: as humanist 
he could justify them by many excellent parallels 
from antiquity ; as Pope he made a decent apology 
for them. 

^neas was prepared to turn his hand to anything : 
he wrote love-verses ; he delivered speeches ; he was 
even appointed by the Archbishop of Milan to preach 
a sermon in honour of St. Ambrose. The theologians 
were indignant at this preference of a layman, but the 
majority of the Council preferred the more sparkling 
style and lively manner of ^neas, and listened, he 
tells us, " with wondrous attention ". He wrote a 
history of the Council of Basle in the style of Caesar's 
Commentaries y and dialogues in defence of its principles 
after the style of Cicero's Tusculans. If it were pos- 
sible to satisfy everybody, ^neas would try and do so. 

By this means he obtained a secure position at Basle, 
and held many offices in the Council ; but Basle day 



.ENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 63 

by day became a less important place, and a less 
satisfactory field for a man of ability who wished to 
succeed. The Council had sat so long and done so 
little that it began to lose prestige. In 1438 France 
withdrew, and settled its own Church Reform by the 
Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, while Germany at the 
same time proclaimed itself neutral between Pope and 
Council. The assembled Fathers of Basle ventured, 
when it was now too late, upon a decisive step : they 
brought their conflict with Eugenius to an issue by 
deposing him, and elected in his stead Amadeus, the 
retired Duke of Savoy, in the hope that his name and 
political influence would win back to the Council the 
allegiance of the princes of Europe. But they were 
doomed to disappointment, for Felix V. was too un- 
used to ecclesiastical matters to act the Pope to the 
satisfaction of those around him, and was too skilled 
in the ways of the world to spend his money without 
a due return. The place-hunters of Basle found that 
they would have to maintain their Pope instead of 
receiving from him ; he refused to rob his children of 
their inheritance, and the various national Churches 
showed no disposition to give him so much recognition 
as to confer a right over their revenues. Under these 
sad circumstances the Council began to thin daily, 
^neas, though he was made Pope Felix's secretary, 
thought he had better move elsewhere ; and, accord- 
ingly, while on an embassy to Frederic of Germany, 
he contrived to produce a favourable impression on the 
Bishop of Chiemsee, by whom Frederic was induced 
to confer upon him the honour of crowning him Poet 
with his own hand. It was an odd distinction, and 



64 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

would be little understood by the Germans. Frederic 
himself cared little about poetry, and ^neas certainly 
was not a poet ; but it pleased his vanity to think that 
his talents were now appreciated, and he transferred 
himself from the service of Felix to that of Frederic, 
as clerk in the Imperial Chancery. He is not ashamed 
to account for his conduct later : " When all were 
leaving Felix and refusing to recognise his Papacy, I 
betook myself to the Emperor Frederic ; for I did 
not wish to change directly from one side to the other ". 
JEneas wished to get a good position in Germany, and 
use it as a vantage-ground from which to reconcile 
himself decently with the Papacy, and even gain its 
gratitude. So at the age of thirty-seven ^neas left 
Basle, and went into Germany as a prophet of culture. 
At first he was bitterly disappointed. He writes soon 
after his arrival, in utter despair, to a friend : " Here 
must I live and die, without relations, without friends, 
without acquaintances, without any conversation with 
you and my other friends. Would that I had never 
seen Basle, for then I should have died in my own 
land, and laid my head on my parent's bosom. Now 
I may say I am as good as dead, for my life does not 
differ from Ovid's when he lived in banishment in the 
land of Tomi." The Emperor took no notice of him ; 
he was merely a clerk in the Chancery ; he was dis- 
gusted with the German manners of his fellow-clerks, 
and they were disgusted by his morals ; even his 
talents were not appreciated, for he wrote a comedy 
in the style of Terence, which only increased their 
contempt for his moral character. But ^neas was 
supported in his trials. " Many things there are which 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 65 

compel us to persevere, but nothing more powerfully 
than ambition, which, rivalling charity, truly beareth 
all things, however grievous, that it may attain to the 
honours of this world and the praise of men. If we 
were humble and laboured to gain our own souls 
rather than hunt after vain -glory, few of us indeed 
would endure such annoyances." Under the influence 
of these feelings ^neas wrote his most popular treatise. 
On the Miseries of Courtiers^ in which he details with 
querulous humour all the grievances of his position, 
from the ingratitude of the prince to the sordor of the 
table-cloths and the hardness of the black bread. But 
hardest to bear of all is the contempt shown towards 
literature : " In the courts of princes literary knowledge 
is held a crime ; and great is the grief of men of letters 
when they find themselves universally despised, and 
see the most important matters managed, not to say 
mismanaged, by blockheads who cannot tell the 
numbers of their fingers and toes". 

But presently things looked more bright to him, 
for he gained the favour of Gaspar Schlick, the 
Chancellor, a man who had risen by his own talents, 
and who was opposed to the aristocratic party at 
court. Schlick knew the value of the keen-eyed 
Italian in watching court intrigues and letting him 
know about them ; and there are many letters from 
^neas to Schlick which show how acutely he could 
serve his patron. And so, through Schlick's favour, 
iEneas became better known at the court, and his 
talents consequently were more appreciated. The 
young Sigismund, Duke of Austria, a boy of seven- 
teen, under Frederic's guardianship, asks ^neas to 

5 



66 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

write him a Latin love-letter, which he does with an 
appropriate address on the uses of love and literature 
and the connexion between the two. Now, too, he 
wrote his very questionable novel of Lucretia and 
Euryalus. His private life seems still to have been 
one of unprincipled self-gratification. 

But meanwhile, in his ecclesiastical opinions, -^neas 
is slowly feeling his way round to that side which he 
sees will ultimately prevail ; at present he wishes to 
follow his masters and be neutral. His letters con- 
sequently utter sentiments favourable to Eugenius or 
to the Council, or expressive of entire indifference, as 
he may think most convenient ; but his purpose is 
fixed to make the best of his position and take no 
false step. " The whole of Christendom," he writes to a 
friend, " favours Eugenius. Germany only is divided, 
though I could wish to see her united, and so adapt 
myself to her ; for I regard this nation as very im- 
portant, since it is not influenced by fear, but by its 
own caprice or judgment. To whichever side the 
King and the Electors incline, thither will my little 
soul follow them ; for I may not trust myself more 
than others." He professes in another letter the most 
fervent intention of following his master : " You know 
that I serve a neutral prince, who, holding the middle 
course, strives after reconciliation. It is not right for 
servants to wish other than their master's will. I will 
win the king's favour ; I will obey the king, will follow 
him where he will ; I will oppose him in nothing ; I 
will meddle with nothing that does not concern me. 
I am a foreigner ; my purpose is to act the part of 
Gnatho : what they say, I say ; what they deny, \ 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 67 

deny. If they act wisely, they shall enjoy the praise ; 
if foolishly, they shall bear the disgrace. I envy no 
man's glory, and wish to grieve over no man's in- 
famy." 

But ^neas soon had reasons for taking a keener 
interest in Church affairs. His patron Schlick wished 
to get the bishopric of Prising for his brother, but the 
canons elected another. Schlick, however, did not 
despair ; the bishopric might be obtained from others 
than the canons, and so he turned his attention to 
Pope Eugenius in the hope of securing what he wanted 
by his means. It entirely suited ^neas's plans to 
follow his master in this ; by securing the recognition 
of Eugenius in Germany, he would obtain a strong 
hold upon the gratitude of Rome, and Rome was the 
only patron from whom a man of ability could gain 
substantial rewards, ^neas was now past middle 
age : he had laboured hard and won very little ; for 
a small canonry at Aspach in the Tyrol was all he 
had to eke out his scanty salary as secretary. Politics, 
he now clearly saw, would never lead him to distinction 
or riches in Germany ; the Church alone could give 
him wealth ; the Pope only could restore him to his 
native Italy, and confer upon him that position which 
he deserved. To take orders, be reconciled to the Pope, 
and, if possible, command his gratitude, were now the 
objects of ^neas's policy. 

The first of these was tolerably easy, as the con- 
scientious objections which ^Eneas had felt in his early 
days had now disappeared. The fire of youth had 
burnt out, and his hair was now turning grey. The 
worship of Bacchus, he wrote to a friend, pleased him 



68 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

more than that of Venus ; he had become practically 
convinced of the ill effects of his former follies, and 
wrote letters of sound moral advice to his friends. 
There was nothing in his religious opinions to hinder 
him from becoming a good servant of the Church. 
He had always had strong religious feelings : while a 
boy at Siena he had been so deeply moved by the 
preaching of Father Bernardino as to wish to become 
a monk, and in Scotland he had shown his thankfulness 
for an escape from shipwreck by making a painful 
pilgrimage of ten miles barefoot to a shrine of the 
Virgin. Nor had he any temptation to be free-think- 
ing in his opinions : but he regarded religious opinions 
and religious observances as the especial province of 
the priesthood, and thought that others need not be 
troubled with them. At the end of his dialogues on 
the Basle Council he gives his opinion that men of 
letters ought not to be disturbed by the sound of so 
many church-bells, and ought to be reckoned good 
Christians without being required to take so many hours 
from their studies for religious services, ^neas was 
never accused of unorthodoxy : he had reformed his 
morals, and so at the age of forty he felt he could con- 
scientiously take orders. " I have a piece of news for 
you," he writes, " that will surprise you. I am now a 
subdeacon — a thing I once used to shudder at. But 
the light-mindedness that grows amongst laymen has 
now left me, and there is nothing I love so much as 
the priesthood." 

^neas next entered upon the career on which his 
political fame is founded, and became the means of 
bringing back to the Papacy the still neutral German 



.ENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 69 

Church. He was a bold man to undertake an embassy 
to Pope Eugenius, whom he had covered with every 
kind of infamy, and against whom he had brought to 
bear every kind of argument three years before. When 
he reached Siena, his relatives besought him not to 
venture into Rome, ^neas answered with dignity 
that the Emperor's ambassador need have no fear ; 
he knew, however, that he had a more effectual title 
to the Pope's consideration. After being privately 
assured of his acceptance, he made in public a decent 
apology to Eugenius : he had gone astray, but who 
had not ? He had acted for the glory of God and of 
the Church, and now mature reflection had brought 
change of mind. Eugenius assured him of forgiveness, 
and the secret negotiations were commenced. 

The task which .Eneas had undertaken was a hard 
one, and the bargain which he negotiated was most 
scandalous : partly for ready money, partly for rights 
to spoil the German Church, Frederic sold the German 
obedience. Still it was a hard matter to win over the 
independent and strongly national feeling of the 
Electors, who despised Frederic's feebleness and were 
repelled by the monastic sternness of Eugenius. 
.Eneas, however, succeeded : he cajoled the king ; he 
bribed the Archbishop of Mainz ; and on the night 
before the final vote of the Diet he ventured to alter 
with his own hand the Pope's instructions to his 
Legates, so as to make them just endurable to the 
Electors' ears. By this means he secured a majority 
for the Pope, and hurried at once to Rome to have 
the matter formally settled. 

The Pope was ill in bed, and wished before he died 



JO HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

to see this lingering quarrel brought to an end. 
Against the wish of the Cardinals he signed the Pro- 
visions a few days before his death, and almost the 
last act of his eventful pontificate was to confer on 
^neas the bishopric of Trieste, ^neas had well 
earned his reward, and had gained what was of equal 
importance to him, a claim to the remembrance of 
posterity. He had given the last blow to the Basle 
Council, to the anti-pope Felix, to the rebellion of 
Germany against the Papacy : he had not lived in 
vain. But ^neas, like all great men, was not at once 
appreciated. The successor of Eugenius, Tommaso 
Parentucelli, Pope Nicolas V., was a high-minded and 
honourable man, entirely devoted to study ; of an ex- 
citable temperament, which, under the burden of the 
Papacy, led him into excess in wine ; choleric even to 
his friends, self-willed, with a contempt for the in- 
trigues of the Curia, and a desire to make the Papacy 
the centre of European learning. To a man of such 
aims and of such a character ^Eneas, whom he had 
well known in his youthful days, must have seemed 
the most contemptible of men ; and though Nicolas 
was compelled to use his services, he never trusted 
him. iEneas was sent back to Germany, where he 
had leisure to write letters of recantation and apology 
for his former life and opinions ; and was obliged, 
sorely against his will, to apply himself again to 
German politics. 

His talents were there principally employed in 
arranging Frederic's marriage, and preparing for his 
journey to Rome to receive the Imperial Crown. His 
account of the proceedings in which he took part gives 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 71 

us a strange picture of the feebleness of Frederic and 
the suspicions of the Italians, ^neas went to Siena 
to await there the coming of Leonora of Portugal, 
Frederic's betrothed bride : the people of Siena were 
afraid of the presence of their influential countryman ; 
they feared that he would plot some revolution in their 
Republic ; and ^neas found it prudent to retire to 
the port of Talamone, where he spent sixty days in 
tedious expectation. Frederic met his bride in Siena, 
the citizens of which, in spite of their former fears, testi- 
fied their loyalty in a painfully modern way. " They 
erected afterwards a marble column as a perpetual 
memorial to posterity, that the Emperor who came 
from the East, and the Empress who came from the 
West, there first encountered one another." But 
-^neas had not only to make loyal speeches ; he had 
also to exert himself to keep the Pope from being at 
the last moment terrified at the thought of the possible 
consequence of receiving so powerful a guest in his 
rebellious city. Nicolas tried to put off the coronation, 
but ^neas stoutly resisted ; he wrote that he marvelled 
at this sudden change of the Apostolic mind : that it 
was not honourable for the Pope to withdraw from his 
promise. Nicolas was comforted by his guarantee of 
Frederic's good behaviour, and the ceremony passed 
off without any disturbance. ^Eneas appeared on that 
occasion as the Emperor's chief adviser, and rumour 
began to destine him to the Cardinalate. 

But soon a new and grander interest was opened to 
^neas, one to which his fame is permanently attached. 
The news of the danger of Constantinople from the 
Turks (1453) caused a sensation throughout Europe. 



72 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Frederic was glad to be brought into prominence as 
the head of Christendom : he was contemptible enough 
as the head of Germany. The Pope, though he felt 
he was really powerless, was glad to have a chance of 
having grants made by the faithful, and " Turk taxes " 
imposed, which he could well spend in rebuilding 
Rome and enriching the Vatican Library which he 
had just founded. But the humanists, above all others, 
took up the cause with avidity, partly from real sym- 
pathy with the Greeks, many of whom they knew, 
some of them had even visited Constantinople ; but very 
greatly from the fact that here was an opportunity 
opened to them for eloquent appeals and fierce invec- 
tive : they had a great capacity for writing, and hailed 
with delight any subject that admitted of classical 
treatment. The Turk literature, begun by Poggio, and 
continued by Filelfo and ^neas, with a crowd of 
imitators, makes by itself almost a library, ^neas 
breaks forth at once into a wail : " What shall I say 
about the innumerable books at Constantinople not 
yet known to the Latins ? Alas ! how many names of 
famous men will perish ! It will be a second death to 
Homer : a second dissolution to Plato. Where now 
shall we look for great philosophers or poets? The 
fountain of the Muses is choked up." But the impres- 
sion on ^neas's mind was not a mere passing one : 
the idea of delivering Europe from the Turks took hold 
upon him, and became a real part of his object in life. 
At first he furbished up his eloquence, and delivered 
polished Latin speeches at German Diets, to incite 
them to support the Emperor in the crusade ; but the 
Germans were not so satisfied either with Emperor or 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 73 

Pope as to hand themselves over unconditionally to 
their guidance. They raised inconvenient questions 
about reform both in Church and State, which it re- 
quired all ^neas's ingenuity to ward off. Luckily the 
Diet was brought to an end by the Pope's death, as it 
was thought the questions might be better raised with 
the new Pope. Alfonso Borja, Pope Calixtus III., an 
old, bedridden man of the age of seventy-seven, had all 
the fire and violence of his native land : as a Spaniard 
he hated the Moslem, and a crusade was the main 
object of his pontificate, ^neas tricked the discon- 
tented Electors of Germany by selling to the new 
Pope, in the Emperor's name, the German obedience, 
at the price of his own cardinalate. The wily Italian 
was, indeed, too clever for the clumsy Germans. This 
is the third time that he has led the feeble Frederic as 
he thought fit, and has sacrificed the interests of the 
German Church, which he was sent to represent, to the 
requirements of his own ambition, ^neas, however, 
did not at once gain his reward, as the Pope had so 
many nephews and Spanish grandees to provide for. It 
was not till December, 1456, that yEneas with delight 
left the uncongenial atmosphere of Germany, where for 
twelve years he had felt himself a stranger and a so- 
journer, and with decent expressions of his own un- 
worthiness, hastened to Rome, "the Cardinal's only 
country," as he called it. 

At Rome, however, he soon found that a poor 
Cardinal, who was not of royal or papal blood, had 
no chance of taking up an independent position, 
^neas strove desperately to make the most of his 
connexion with Germany, and attain to political im- 



74 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

portance at the Papal Court. But German affairs had 
now ceased to be of consequence ; the Pope cared little 
for general politics, and was devoted solely to two 
objects — a crusade, and provision for his nephews. 
The restored Papacy had lost all its mediaeval grandeur 
and its old traditions ; its policy was directed by the 
personal interests or caprices of the individual Popes, 
who were more bent on advancing their relatives than 
promoting the interests of Christendom. So one Pope 
undid the work of another. Calixtus tore the splendid 
bindings from the books which Nicolas had collected, 
and sold them for the purposes of a crusade : and the 
old friends and advisers of Nicolas had no weight 
with Calixtus, who was entirely under the influence of 
his nephews : so that the Borjas ruled in Rome, and 
the Cardinals who could not submit to them must seek 
refuge elsewhere, ^neas accepted this position, and 
entered at once into close intimacy with Cardinal 
Rodrigo Borja, afterwards infamous as Pope Alexander 
VI. When he was away from Rome, ^neas watched 
over his interests, and tried his best to share equally 
all vacant benefices between himself and his friend. 
It is quite touching to read of the sad disappointments 
they sometimes met with. "As regards benefices," 
writes -^neas, " / will take care both for you and me. 
But we have been deceived by false reports. He who 
we heard had died in N urn berg was here the other day 
and dined with me. So, too, the Bishop of Toul, who 
was said to have died at Neustadt in Austria, has re- 
turned in good health. But still I will keep my eyes 
open if any benefice shall fail vacant." 

That ^neas was a poor man was certainly not his 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 75 

own fault in the first instance, and was one which he 
strove his best to amend. He procured from the Pope 
a monstrous grant of a general reservation of benefices 
to the value of 2,000 ducats in Germany, and his letters 
show the greatest eagerness to fill up the amount as 
soon as possible. But ^neas did not trust to the slow 
means of wealth to gain importance at Rome. He 
had learned the art of winning over men ; had learned 
from the necessities of his early years how injudicious 
it was to make an enemy, how easy it was to make 
himself agreeable. So among all the different parties, 
and all the personal animosities of the Roman Court, 
-^neas managed to move with graceful sweetness, never 
took up the enmities of a party with which he might 
ally himself, and refused to give offence to any one ; 
he corresponds even with the absent Cardinals in a 
tone of good-natured friendliness. 

And for this ^neas was recompensed ; for on the 
death of Calixtus (1458) it became obvious to the 
Italians that the only candidate who was sufficiently 
unobjectionable to have any chance against Estoute- 
ville, Cardinal of Rouen, who had the French influence 
and his own great wealth in his favour, was Piccolomini, 
Cardinal of Siena. There were eighteen Cardinals 
present at the conclave : two-thirds of the votes were 
necessary for an election. On the second scrutiny it 
was found ^neas had nine votes, Estouteville only 
six. The assembled Cardinals proceeded then to try 
the method of vote " by accession," as it was called. 
" They sat all in their places, silent and pale, as though 
they had been rapt by the Holy Ghost. No one for 
some time spoke or opened his mouth ; no one moved 



^6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

any member of his body except his eyes, which he 
cast on various sides. Wondrous was the silence, 
wondrous the appearance of the men ; no voice was 
heard, no motion seen." Then Rodrigo Borja, who 
had not yet voted, rose and said, " I accede to the 
Cardinal of Siena ". Then another Cardinal did like- 
wise ; one vote only was wanted, and that not long. 
Cardinal Colonna rose, " I too accede to the Sienese, 
and make him Pope". The Cardinals with one im- 
pulse threw themselves at ^neas's feet : he was clad 
in the white papal robe, and asked by what name he 
would be called. " Pius," he answered at once, with 
Virgilian reminiscence. Sum Pius Mneas fama super 
(Ethera notus. Again the Cardinals adored him before 
the altar ; then the election was announced to the 
people from a window. The people, according to the 
old custom, ran and pillaged the house of the late 
Cardinal : all Pius's books and works of art were lost 
to him : but he had one source of wicked satisfaction 
— the Cardinal of Genoa suffered equally, for many 
in the crowd confounded the cry " // Senese " with " // 
Genovese" and both were pillaged to make sure. 

Thus ^neas had gained the highest position in 
Europe solely by his own talents and endeavours. By 
steady perseverance he had climbed the ladder of 
preferment ; he had always shouted with the majority, 
had never spoken publicly on the unpopular side, had 
never made an enemy where he could avoid it, had 
managed that his own interest should coincide with 
that of his patron, had had a soul above mere vulgar 
consistency, had always been prominent, yet never too 
pronounced, except at Basle, when his blood was 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS 11. -j^ 

young, and then he had promptly repaired the error 
and avoided it for the future. And for all this self- 
denial he had his reward when the Cardinals whom 
he had cajoled kissed his feet, their hearts bursting 
with envy, and hailed him Successor of the Apostle. 
Nor had ^neas gained his position without long and 
severe toil : " For five-and-twenty years," he said to 
the Cardinal of Pavia in language modelled after St, 
Paul, " I have wetted with my sweat almost the whole 
Christian world ; tossed by tempests, bitten by frosts, 
scorched by the summer-heats, plundered by brigands, 
cast into prisons, led twenty times to the gates of 
death ". In truth, without any need of hyperboles, few 
men have combined the labours of practical politics 
with assiduous study and constant literary production 
to so great a degree as did ^neas. He had always 
been a diligent student ; at Basle, in his days of youth- 
ful frivolity, the boon companion who shared his room 
used to rail from his bed at ^Eneas, who pored over 
some classic ; and the habits which he formed early 
were never lost. It is astonishing to see how many 
varied interests he retained amid all the bustle of 
his scheming life ; his mind was always active and 
keen, and it was natural to him to give a literary ex- 
pression to every thought that occurred to him, and 
every piece of knowledge that he gained. Even the 
Basle edition of 1571, which contains his works in 
nearly eleven hundred folio pages, does not contain 
nearly all he wrote ; many additions have been pub- 
lished separately, many of his productions are yet in 
manuscript, and much that he wrote has been entirely 
lost. Of his poems we have very few left, and they are 



78 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

insignificant ; of his carefully prepared speeches we 
only have a few, yet they fill three volumes quarto. 
Of his letters we have more than five hundred ; besides 
this, he wrote pamphlets on theology, philosophy, and 
even natural history ; for there exists in manuscript a 
treatise of his Abotit the Nature of the Horse. His 
mind was perfectly encyclopaedic ; he seems to have 
had a perfect passion for seeing everything and writing 
about it ; he had very little choice of subject, but 
turned his clear and polished intellect to anything 
which the varied fortunes of his life from time to time 
brought before him : hence it comes that his fame is 
chiefly that of a letter-writer and historian, for he 
lived through so many important events, and has 
described them so fully, that his writings are a most 
valuable contribution to an understanding of the age 
in which he lived. At Basle he wrote a history of the 
Council ; in Germany he wrote a history of Frederic 
III. ; when sent on an embassy to Bohemia he wrote 
a history of that country : but what impresses us most 
with his keenness and justness of observation is his 
interest in geography, and the ease with which he con- 
nects geography and history together. He describes 
the position and the objects of interest in every town 
he has visited : he never sees a ruin but he acquaints 
himself with its history, and so round this desire to 
keep his eyes open his knowledge grew. His literary 
style is a transcript of his mental qualities : it is not a 
struggle after polished Latinity, like that of many of 
his contemporaries ; it often falls into barbarisms, but 
it is always easy, flowing, and clear, ^neas, whose 
vanity did not overpower his criticism on his own 



.ENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 79 

works, says of himself : " My style of writing is un- 
polished and bald, but it is frank, and without trap- 
pings. I never write with labour, because I do not 
stretch after things which are too high for me, and 
which I do not know, but what I have learned I 
write." 

There is no one whose life, regarded as a combina- 
tion of literature and politics, exhibits more forcibly 
the simple mental freshness and overpowering thirst 
for knowledge which is the chief characteristic of the 
scholars of the age. With childlike eagerness and 
curiosity ^neas went forth to investigate the world ; 
he took it just as he found it, and described it without 
a tinge of pedantry. He looked back with only slight 
remorse upon his early failures and mistakes, for he 
had always made the best of things as he found them, 
and he had always learned wisdom from every fresh 
experience. 

The Papacy at least might claim the praise of 
adapting itself to the time. When Francesco Sforza 
ruled at Milan, and Cosmo de Medici was moulding 
Florence ; when Alfonso of Aragon had established 
his learned court at Naples, and France was preparing 
for the rule of Louis XL, where could the Papacy find 
a happier mixture of culture and policy, of the wiliness 
of the serpent with the harmlessness of the dove, than 
in ^neas Sylvius, Cardinal of Siena ? 

PART II. 

In spite of the tortuous nature of his political actions 
and the blots upon his private character, ^neas was 
not really a vicious man. It is true that, while he 



8o HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

was struggling upwards, he felt it impossible to avoid 
many false situations in public matters, and he was 
determined that no false shame should prevent him in 
his endeavours after success. In private life he made 
no profession of being better than his neighbours. 
" Continence might suit a philosopher," he exclaimed, 
" but was unfit for a poet ; " but his conscience had 
hindered him from taking Orders till advancing years 
had cooled his passions, and this was in those days a 
rare concession to morality. The culture which ^neas 
had gained from his studies gave him a delicacy of 
mind and sensitiveness of perception, which saved him 
from coarse and open offences against current social 
decorum. He had done many things which probably 
he wished he had been spared the necessity of doing ; 
but poverty sharpened his wits till they regarded strict 
honesty as clumsy blundering, and his ambition, which 
had all its own work to do, neglected, in the pressure 
of business, the sharp distinctions to which more 
grovelling minds have time to attend. His letters 
show a delightful naivete in stating his real position 
and disclosing his intentions. These letters he de- 
liberately allowed to come down to posterity, and in 
this he certainly is a strong instance of the great power 
of candour. Every man, however much he had to 
conceal, however much he might shrink before judg- 
ment, would still stand out better in the eyes of pos- 
terity if they could see his real motives than if they 
were only left to guess at them. As we read ^neas's 
letters we may laugh sometimes at his vanity, or feel 
indignant at his effrontery, or despise his self-seeking, 
while we admire his cleverness ; but, as we read on. 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 8i 

we tend to feel a greater liking for him personally. 
How many men who have been so successful would dare 
leave behind them so clear a record of their doings ? 
How many politicians (and it is as a politician that 
^neas must be judged) would care that all the cor- 
respondence should descend to posterity, in which 
they hunted for places, or violently upheld opinions 
which they afterwards renounced ? Yet in the case of 
JEneas these are the materials we possess, — materials 
which he took no pains to suppress or garble. 

Moreover, ^neas lived in an age of tortuous policy 
and wonderful success. He himself was present at the 
siege of Milan, when the condottier-general, Francesco 
Sforza, suddenly turned his arms against the Common- 
wealth, whose hireling he was, and, after subjecting 
the people to all the horrors of a protracted siege, still 
managed so well that he was finally hailed by their 
acclamations Duke of Milan, and ruled them securely 
till his death. It was a time in which the policy of 
which Macchiavelli is the passive analyst was uncon- 
sciously developing. In ^neas we see this policy in 
its most insinuating, most graceful, most spontaneous 
form. He disarmed opposition by kindliness and 
suavity, by perfect inoffensiveness of character, just 
as surely as did Caesar Borja by the assassin's dagger 
and the poisoned cup. ^neas and Caesar Borja equally 
had success as their object ; but ^neas succeeded by 
never making a foe, Csesar Borja hoped to succeed 
by never leaving one alive. 

This is the key to the character of ^neas : he repre- 
sented the cultivated and enfranchised spirit of the 

Renaissance, as guided by a skilful hand through the 

6 



82 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

mazes of politics. He began by having a perfectly 
open mind. The Renaissance had taught him and -all 
its early disciples a contempt for the ideas of the 
Middle Ages, and an entire want of sympathy with 
them. Yet this contempt they dared not too openly 
express, so they revenged themselves by uncontrolled 
vagaries, in which they either pulled down or propped 
up parts of the old structure as their fancy or interest 
led them. So it was with ^neas. The man of culture, 
he held, must perform with ability and decorum the 
duties of any office to which he is called ; must use 
as skilfully as he can the advantages, and even dis- 
advantages, of his position. In this there was no 
hypocrisy, no consciousness of meanness, no particle 
of dissimulation. His opinions in his youth were 
floating, because the world lay before him and he 
wished to keep an open mind, so as to be able to turn 
his talents to the best account : as life advanced, the 
vague possibilities which youth had held before his 
eyes fell away one by one and were abandoned, the 
future became year by year more limited and more 
defined ; and so, side by side with the actual facts 
of life, his convictions formed themselves, and his 
opinions and life fitted themselves into one another 
with wondrous suppleness. From looseness of life 
^neas passed to moral respectability, when the force 
of temptation ceased ; from indifference to religious 
forms he passed to a priesthood of unimpeachable 
orthodoxy, when he saw that orthodoxy was going to 
prevail ; from adherence to the liberal and reforming 
opinions of Basle he passed to a rigid ecclesiastical 
conservatism, and as Pope anathematised the opinions 



.ENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. -83 

which in his youth he had skilfully advocated. He did 
so because his position had changed ; the same opinions 
did not befit the young adventurer and the man of secure 
fame; the conditions that surrounded him v^ere different, 
how could his opinions or desires remain the same ? 

In this point of view yEneas was quite consistent : 
he had succeeded, but that was no reason why he 
should wish others to succeed. As Cardinal he urged 
upon the Pope the desirability of settling a disputed 
election to the bishopric of Regensburg in favour of a 
nephew of the Duke of Bavaria, although he had only 
slight claim to a capitular election and was under the 
canonical age ; his election would be more expedient, 
and would give greater prestige to the Papacy, whose 
object must be to ally itself with princes. No senti- 
mental reminiscences of his own early days misled 
^neas to lend a hand to a struggling brother. He 
is even very proud of this exploit, as indeed he was 
of most things in which he had a hand ; but to this 
triumph of his principles he calls special attention, and 
remar4cs that it "marvellously increased his reputa- 
tion among the Cardinals ". 

This capacity for making the best of circumstances, 
this genuine and perfectly unconscious power of self- 
adaptation to any condition, was quite natural in that 
day. The revival of the learning of the ancients dis- 
gusted the student with the notions of his own day, 
while antiquity gave no real ideas to enable him to 
reconstruct his life under the circumstances in which 
it had to be spent. The culture of the Renaissance 
was consequently merely concerned with form, and 
very little with contents. The facts of life were given 



84 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

from without ; the cultivated mind was not concerned 
with them ; the utmost it could do was to try and 
make them accord with ancient precedent — to rob 
them, if possible, of their repulsive, ungraceful, or 
indecorous aspect. Even in the Council of Basle the 
pious Cardinal of Aries stirred the assembled Fathers 
to take courage and depose Eugenius, by quoting the 
examples of self-devotion given by Curtius, Leonidas, 
Theramenes, Codrus, and Socrates. 

The consideration of this cultivated versatility of 
disposition, which was the natural result of ^neas's 
studies and was quickened by his ambition and vanity, 
is necessary for the consistent understanding of his 
character. The majority of his biographers wish to 
draw a distinction between his early life and his pon- 
tificate, and are willing to imagine that his zeal for a 
Crusade was the means of raising him into a nobler 
sphere of personal unselfishness ; some even go so far 
as to argue, that one who was so admirable as Pope 
must have been equally admirable in his younger days, 
and therefore wish to read his early writings in the light 
of his edifying death, and refer all his slippery actions 
to a sincere desire for the good of Christendom. To 
me -^neas Sylvius seems consistent throughout. He 
is a cultivated man, adapting himself gracefully to his 
surroundings ; his opinions, both moral and religious, 
develop themselves spontaneously, so as to accord with 
the position which his talents are winning for him — a 
position which is day by day rising higher and higher, 
and so making greater demands upon his better nature, 
and freeing him more and more from the lower re- 
quirements of self-interest. 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 85 

^neas, then, when he was made Pope, showed a 
sincere desire to discharge faithfully and well the 
duties of that office ; to discharge them, moreover, in 
a becoming way, and, above all things, to earn a title 
to the remembrance of posterity. His ambition was 
always saved by his vanity from degenerating into 
mere selfishness, and the vulgar desire to gain benefits 
and position for himself was always subordinate to 
the anxiety to make for himself a name and leave a 
mark upon his times. The times were, unluckily, such 
as it was impossible to leave a mark upon. Europe 
could no longer be regarded as united ; it consisted of 
a number of States struggling to a consciousness of 
their nationality, and at present confused both in their 
separate aims and in their mutual relations. It was 
scarcely possible for a Pope to make any impression 
on Europe such as Pius found it, but it is always 
possible to leave a name and found a renown by an 
appeal to a great idea, even when its time has passed 
away. 

This reason alone, if others had been wanting, would 
have led a Pope of the ambition of Pius II. to identify 
himself closely with the idea of a Crusade. It had 
been talked of by the last three Popes : Calixtus had 
made it his chief object : it was the only aim for which 
a Pope could hope to unite Europe, the only cry which 
had any chance of meeting with universal recognition. 
The Papacy was an object of suspicion to the national 
Churches, whose open rebellion had just been with 
difficulty subdued ; in ecclesiastical matters it had no 
chance of obtaining general hearing, nor could it hope 
to interfere successfully in the political complications 



86 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

of Europe. But the fall of Constantinople had given 
a shock to all ; the rapid advance of the Turks might 
well cause general alarm. Opposition to them from 
motives of European policy, if not from motives of 
religion, was the only hope for any undertaking on a 
large enough scale to afford Pius any chance of dis- 
tinction. Moreover, his fame was already connected 
with the Crusade ; already his eloquence had been 
heard in Italy and in Germany calling upon all to join 
the holy cause ; his reputation as an orator rested on 
this foundation, and happily in this matter his present 
policy did not require a repudiation of the past. 

It is in association with the crusading spirit that 
Pius is generally judged : he is regarded as the last 
enthusiast of a noble idea — as one who warred nobly, 
though unsuccessfully, against the selfishness of his 
time ; and, when he found the contest hopeless, died 
almost a martyr to his mistaken yet generous zeal. 
Yet, if we examine the facts of Pius' pontificate, we see 
no signs of overwhelming haste, no traces of any self- 
sacrifice in essential points, no abandonment even of 
small matters of Papal policy, to further the end which 
he professed to hold supreme. It is true that immedi- 
ately after his accession Pius announced his intention 
of holding a Congress at Mantua ; but when he tore 
himself away from Rome, amid the tears of the 
populace, who regretted the loss of the pecuniary 
advantages they derived from the presence of the 
Papal Court, he still made no haste to reach Mantua, 
but spent eight months on the way, lingering fondly 
in his native Siena, and adorning his birthplace, 
Corsignano, which changed its name to Pienza in his 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 87 

honour. He professed a desire to pacify Italy, that 
it might aim at nothing but a Crusade, but the extent 
of his desire may be judged by his views about the 
reconciliation of Sigismund Malatesta of Rimini and 
Piccinino : " Not sufficiently understanding whether 
war or peace between them would conduce more to 
the welfare of the Church — since it was plain that 
Piccinino could not rest quiet, and it was probable 
that, if he were relieved from war with Sigismund, he 
would turn his arms against the Church — the Pope 
judged that it was the will of God that peace could 
not be concluded ". 

Nor did Pius endeavour to free himself from com- 
plications, that he might give himself unreservedly to 
the great cause he had undertaken. At his accession 
he found the kingdom of Naples claimed by Rene of 
Anjou, in opposition to Ferdinand, an illegitimate son 
of King Alfonso, who had just died. Calixtus had 
pronounced against Ferdinand, wishing to hand over 
Naples to one of the Borjas, his nephews. Pius, partly 
to avoid difficulties, partly with the Italian antipathy 
to the P'rench, at once recognised Ferdinand. So far 
he had acted wisely, and had done nothing inconsistent 
with his great aim. The claim of Ferdinand was a good 
one, and the Pope might recognise whom he thought 
fit. But Pius did much more : he entered into a 
treaty with Ferdinand, and identified himself and 
the Papal policy with Ferdinand's party ; and this 
he did from no higher motive than nepotism, from 
which all the culture which Pius possessed did not 
succeed in saving him. He wished to get a hold on 
Ferdinand, and secure a principality in the kingdom 



88 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

of Naples for Antonio Todeschini, son of his sister 
Laodamia — a young man in no way remarkable, and 
who in his early days had caused his uncle trouble, 
and wrung from him a letter of good advice : " Every- 
thing in which you now delight — youth, health, beauty, 
pleasures — will pass away. Wisdom alone, if once we 
receive her, accompanies us to our death, and after 
death makes another life blessed." From the care 
which Pius now takes of Antonio, we are bound to 
conclude that he profited by these admonitions. Pius 
raised troops and money to help Ferdinand and to gain 
a princedom for Antonio as a dowry of Ferdinand's 
daughter. No doubt there were motives of Papal 
and of Italian policy also which made the idea of 
an Angevin King of Naples distasteful to the Pope ; 
but the leading motive of his strong partisanship of 
Ferdinand seems to have been this amiable concern for 
his relations. From the point of view of his crusading 
projects it was most impolitic, for it alienated France 
from the Papacy, and gave an additional reason for 
the refusal to take part in the expedition, or to allow 
the Pope to collect revenues within the French terri- 
tories. True, the French had another reason to give ; 
they were at war with England, and could not afford 
to detach any of their forces. Pius answered that he 
was making a similar demand from the English, and 
if both sides sent an equal contingent the decrease of 
strength would be proportional, and they might con- 
tinue their war with undiminished forces. Surely this 
naivete must be ironical. 

Similarly, if we look at the other European powers, 
we see that Pius did not take steps towards their 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 89 

pacification, and did not behave towards them in a 
way to encourage them to enter upon a crusade. In 
Germany he quarrels with the Archbishop Diether of 
Mainz, because he has not paid the enormous sum of 
20,500 ducats, due to the Papal treasury as fees on 
installation. When Diether tried to evade the pay- 
ment, the Pope set up a rival, who maintained his 
claims by force of arms. The dispute widened into 
civil war, which for four years devastated the Rhine 
provinces. Equally unhappy was Pius in his dealings 
with Eastern Germany, where, during the whole of his 
pontificate, he was engaged in a bitter conflict with 
Sigismund, Duke of Austria, for whom, as a young 
man, ^Eneas had written love-letters and some educa- 
tional treatises. England, engaged in the Wars of the 
Roses, Pius regarded as almost beneath his notice. 
He mentions that Henry VI. had sent some lords of 
rank and dignity on an embassy to the Congress at 
Mantua, but they had refused to come, and only two 
priests appeared before him. Pius adds, with a strange 
ignorance of English forms, that their credentials bore 
the subscription of no witnesses — the King was so 
deserted that he had to witness his letters himself, 
writing Teste rege^ and appending the great seal. 
It seems strange that the Papal Curia did not know 
the ordinary form of an English state paper. But 
Pius " despised so poor an embassy from so great a 
King, and did not admit them to a second audience ". 
We do not see in the papal eloquence, any more 
than in the papal policy, any burning enthusiasm for 
a Crusade. His speech at Mantua is polished and 
laboured, yet not of the kind to thrill an excited 



90 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

multitude with wild zeal or fill the air with shouts 
of Deos lo volt ! Life, he says, is short after all, and 
troublesome ; death comes from small causes, as we 
see in the case of the poet Anacreon : let us earn in 
war against the Turks a glorious immortality, " where 
the soul, freed from the chain of the body, will not 
recover, as Plato thought, universal knowledge, but 
will rather, as Aristotle and our doctors hold, attain 
it ". His speech, however, was much admired ; but it 
was followed by a long address from the Greek 
Cardinal Bessarion, which showed, as Pius remarked 
with some complacency, how inferior was Greek elo- 
quence to Latin. The whole Congress at Mantua was 
a failure : no one except Philip, Duke of Burgundy, 
who promised to lead 6,000 men, made a genuine 
offer of aid to the Pope. 

The Crusades were looked upon by the European 
nations in general as means for raising money, which 
the Papacy spent on its own purposes ; and the con- 
duct of Pius in the war of the Neapolitan succession 
did not tend to allay their suspicions. The war con- 
tinued for five years, in the course of which the papal 
revenues were almost entirely exhausted, and Pius did 
not even hesitate to summon to his aid the brave 
Scanderbeg, whose presence was so sorely needed in 
Greece to hinder the northward progress of the Turks. 
We grieve to find the Albanian hero leading for a few 
months 800 of his troops to help the Pope in Naples ; 
a useless aid, because the hardy mountaineers were 
unused to warfare in the open field, and in the luxury 
of Italy degenerated into a disorderly rabble. Scan- 
derbeg retired without having effected anything ; but 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 91 

his presence in Italy is an instance of the mischief 
done by the empty talk about Crusades in which 
Europe at this period indulged. The gallant bands, 
who were inspired by strong national feeling to resist 
the Turks, were being deluded by false hopes, and pre- 
vented by the promise of a large expedition from 
carrying out, as sturdily as they would otherwise have 
done, their own little efforts of resistance and defence. 
Europe, in fact, did not believe in a Crusade, although 
it had an uneasy feeling that a Crusade was both right 
and wise : the various nations recognised the duty and 
expedience of it, but deferred the performance till a 
more convenient season. Pope Pius talked more than 
any one else, as befitted a Pope, but did not show any 
greater desire than any other prince to sacrifice his 
own interests, however trifling, to the great end which 
he eloquently advocated. In speaking, it is true, he 
was not sparing of himself — miracles almost were 
wrought to enable him to harangue more conveniently. 
On one occasion he spoke for three hours, he says, 
and was listened to with breathless attention ; and 
" although he laboured under a very severe cough, yet 
he was aided during his speech by Divine help, and 
never coughed at all or showed the least difficulty". 
Another time, though suffering from the gout, " though 
languid, overcome by pain, pale, and anxious, he could 
at first scarcely speak at all — when he warmed with 
eloquence his pain departed, words rushed to his lips, 
and he delivered a speech of three hours' length, which 
was listened to with the greatest attention by all". 
But this speaking availed little when contrasted with 
the acts of Pius. He spent his energies and money in 



92 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the Neapolitan war, thereby openly quarrelling with 
France ; while in Germany he fomented dissension 
instead of promoting peace. The glory of his death 
has thrown these considerations into the background, 
but they were present to the eyes, and influenced the 
judgments, of his contemporaries. 

Pius was, at the same time, quite in earnest about 
the Crusade ; but not with the earnestness of deep 
conviction or self-devotion. He wished it might come 
about under his presidency, but he could not sacrifice 
his nephew's prospects to a shadowy hope. He had 
urged the duty on others, — till they showed signs of 
fulfilling it, he need not sacrifice the interests of the 
Holy See. So Pius sounded the note for a Crusade, 
and waited for six years to see what would happen. 
He had conducted with credit the Mantua congress, 
and this was some gain meanwhile. 

We cannot follow Pius through all the acts of his 
Pontificate, but all of them were guided by the same 
care for scrupulous external decorum, and the same 
dexterous balancing of the claims and advantages of 
present profit and future renown. The attention which 
Pius pays to decorum, as befitted a man of culture, is 
seen in his long description of the festival which he 
celebrated on the occasion of receiving from Greece 
the head of the Apostle St. Andrew ; he met the 
sacred relic outside the city and conducted it within 
the walls, amid a crowd which was edified by his 
behaviour. " The wondrous order and dignity of the 
procession of priests riveted the attention of all — chant- 
ing with palms in their hands, they advanced through 
the throng an escort to the Pope, with slow steps and 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 93 

serious countenance." Tears are shed at the moving 
discourse of Pius ; a Latin hymn in Sapphic stanzas 
composed by Campanus is sung in honour of the 
Apostle and the Pope. Then the relic was deposited 
in the Church of S. Luca, where the Pope also spent 
the night ; the next day it was to be carried to St. 
Peter's : he tells us his anxiety about the weather, lest 
the rain should spoil the procession ; and when the 
sun shone out in the morning, then rushed into his 
grateful mind the lines — 

Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacula mane : 
Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet. 

He tells us how, to improve the spectacle, he remorse- 
lessly ordered that the Cardinals should go on foot. 
" It was a great sight, and full of devotion, to see 
these venerable men walking through the slippery 
streets, palms in their hands, their grey hairs covered 
by white mitres, clad in priestly robes, their eyes fixed 
on the ground in silent prayer ; and many, who before 
could never advance more than a hundred yards with- 
out their horses, accomplished, on this day, two miles, 
and that in the mud and laden with their priestly 
garments." 

Again, on the festival of Corpus Domini, celebrated 
at Viterbo, the Cardinals vied with one another in the 
grandeur of their shows, knowing that the Pope was a 
man of taste, and wishing to please him. One device 
of the Cardinal of Teano was especially praised : a 
great square through which the procession was to pass 
was covered over with blue and white drapery, and 
adorned with arches wreathed with ivy and flowers, 



94^ HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

and with eighteen columns, on which sat eighteen boys 
dressed like angels, who formed a choir to sing a 
greeting to the Pope. In the middle of the square 
was a representation of the Holy Sepulchre with the 
soldiers asleep around it ; as the Pope drew near an 
angel was let down by a rope through the curtain, 
saluted the Pope " with heavenly voice and gesture," 
and sang a hymn announcing the Resurrection. Then 
a small cannon was fired, the soldiers awoke and 
rubbed their eyes ; the tomb opened, a figure stepped 
out "carrying in his hand the Banner of the Cross 
adorned with a diadem, and announcing to the people, 
in Italian verse, the accomplishment of their salvation ". 
Farther on, in the square before the Cathedral was 
acted the Assumption of the Virgin ; heaven was 
represented on the house-tops, where the Cardinal of 
Santi Quattro Coronati had not shrunk from the ex- 
tremest realism : " God sitting in majesty, and bands 
of holy angels, and blazing stars, and the joys of the 
glory above, were wondrously represented ". All this, 
to its minutest details, Pius tells us : he was pleased 
with a successful appearance in public. Like a man 
of taste, he wished that everything should be well 
done, and that a proper decorum should distinguish 
everything that surrounded him. 

Sometimes, indeed, this decorum was sadly inter- 
fered with ; and Pius was keenly sensitive to its breach. 
Much as he might wish, in the splendour of the Papacy, 
to forget his antecedents and behave with that pro- 
priety which only the untoward circumstances of his 
early days had made him ever lay aside, still there 
were some who were not so ready to forget ; especially 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 95 

one Gregory Heimberg, an honest German, who had 
no belief in the Italian refinements of ^neas, and who 
had sturdily upheld the independence of the German 
Church against yEneas's machinations so long as he 
could. Gregory could not forgive his old foe, though 
he had become Pope ; he was determined to show him 
that even a blunt German was not altogether defence- 
less, but could use his opportunity when it came, 
^neas has left us an amusing account of Gregory's 
rude German manners in Rome, where he had gone 
on an embassy for the German electors to Eugenius, 
and ^neas had managed to get in advance of him. 
" Gregory used to walk after sunset, sweltering in the 
heat, in a manner disrespectful both to the Romans 
and his own office — with his boots loose about his 
heels, his hat in his hand, his breast uncovered, waving 
his arms, cursing Eugenius and the Romans and the 
Curia, heaping imprecations on the stifling heat." 
iEneas had laughed at him then, but practice had 
taught Gregory something better than mere rage, and 
he came to Mantua to pay Pope Pius off for the tricks 
that iEneas had played. As ambassador of Albert of 
Austria, he made a speech before the assembly. He 
need not, he said, praise his master, as the renowned 
iEneas had frequently done so himself, — ^neas, who 
had so often gone as ambassador, and had gained by 
his speeches the highest glory ; he who was no orator 
could only do his duty, and that with dry words and 
harsh speech, without any windy sentences or rhetori- 
cal finery. Pius winced, but Gregory went on, speaking 
no word in praise of the Pope, and quoting Terence, 
who was not regarded as a proper author for the 



96 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Papal ear. Not long after, Gregory, in another speech 
which he made as Sigismund's ambassador, reminded 
Pius of his intimacy with Sigismund as a boy, and his 
kindness in writing love-letters for him, " which your 
Holiness was good enough to translate from Italian 
into German ". Gregory was remorseless ; and Pius 
was painfully aware that he was being laughed at. It 
must have given him some satisfaction afterwards to 
pronounce sentence of excommunication on both Sigis- 
mund and Gregory for their resistance to Nicolas of 
Cusa, bishop of Brixen. 

But it was not often that Pius met with such treat- 
ment ; his affability disarmed hostility, and he de- 
lighted, as Pope, to ramble about Italy and enjoy the 
simple homage of the rustics. He could not stay at 
Rome and lead an uneventful life surrounded by all 
the equipments of Papal etiquette ; he liked to travel 
and see new places, and learn the history of the various 
towns he saw ; he liked the country, and he enjoyed 
change of air ; his life had been too adventurous, 
hitherto, to allow him to sink into an old age of mere 
ceremonial decorum. So, in spite of the murmurs of 
the people of Rome, Pius used to wander forth attended 
by a few Cardinals, with whom he might transact the 
necessary Papal business, and would enjoy the cool 
breezes of the hills, or refresh his aching frame by 
sailing up the Tiber, or would settle at the baths of 
Viterbo, or draw towards the neighbourhood of his 
native Siena. He would delight in eating a simple 
meal by the side of a fountain, or would rest while his 
servants, with much shouting and bustle, would beat 
the stream for fish ; and great was his satisfaction 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 97 

when the peasants of the neighbourhood, hearing of 
his presence, flocked to beg his blessing and bring 
gifts of fruit and bread ; nor did he, when the rude 
herdsman offered him milk in the wooden bowl well 
dirtied by continual use, refuse the gift, but drank it 
with a smile of kindliness, and handed it on to the 
nearest Cardinal. 

In his delight in a holiday, and his appreciation 
of the picturesque in natural scenery, Pius is far in 
advance of the ordinary sentiment of his time ; and 
in fact is purely modern. He describes the view out 
of his bedroom window, and the places at which he 
used to halt for food, in the same way as a modern 
traveller writing to his friends at home. Here is an 
extract from his journal : "The Pope advanced from 
Fabrica to Soriano through roads which were most 
delightful ; for the greater part of the fields were yellow 
with the flowers of the broom, the rest, covered with 
shrubs and flowers of every kind, shone with purple, 
white, or a thousand other hues. It was the month 
of May, and everything was green ; the woods were 
smiling and ringing with the songs of birds. ... In 
Viterbo, the Pope used every day to go out before 
daybreak into the fields, to enjoy the pleasant air 
before the day grew hot, and look at the green crops 
and the flowering flax which, in its colour, imitated the 
heavens." Passages like this meet us at every page, 
showing the keen pleasure that Pius took in change 
of place, his ready observation of the picturesque, and 
his delight in the beauties of nature. 

His diligence was indeed inexhaustible ; although 
he possessed this relish for a holiday, and although he 

7 



9S HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

was so broken down in health that he had always to 
be carried in a litter, he never neglected either the 
duties of his office or his devotion to literary pursuits. 
It is indeed wonderful how persistently he retained 
his freshness, how easily his mind could receive an 
impulse, and how laboriously he would follow out a 
line of study even in the midst of pressing business. 
The most learned of his works is a Treatise on the 
Geography of Asia^ which shows great research, as 
well as accuracy of knowledge, and truthfulness of 
conception of the general bearings of geography, and 
the utility of its study. This work was commenced in 
1 46 1, in the height of his Neapolitan war ; it arose from 
a chance conversation between Pius and his general, 
Frederic of Urbino, who was escorting him from 
Rome to Tivoli. "The Pope was pleased with the 
flashing of the arms and the trappings of the horses 
and men ; for what is more beautiful than the ordered 
line of a camp ? The sun was shining on the shields ; 
the breast-plates and crests reflected a wondrous 
splendour ; each band of soldiers showed like a forest 
of spears. Frederic, who was a man of great reading, 
began to ask the Pope if the heroes of antiquity were 
armed like men of the present day. The Pope said 
that all our present arms, and many others as well, 
were mentioned by Homer and Virgil." The talk 
then turned to the Trojan war, which Frederic dispar- 
aged, while the Pope maintained its importance ; then 
they discussed the extent and boundaries of Asia 
Minor, about which they could not agree. " So the 
Pope, finding a little leisure at Tivoli, wrote a de- 
scription of Asia drawn from Ptolemy, Strabo, Pliny, 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 99 

Quintus Curtius, Julius Solinus, Pomponius Mela, and 
other ancient authors, choosing such points as seemed 
requisite for the full understanding of the matter." 
Nor was this all : for in the preface to the Asia, Pius 
tells us his intention (it was partially fulfilled) of writing 
a geography of the world, with a sketch of the previous 
history of every country, and a full account of the im- 
portant events which had occurred in each in his own 
time. He knows that this literary work will not escape 
a malignant interpretation. " How comes it, many 
will say, that the Pope has so much leisure as to 
spend, in writing books, the time which belongs to 
the Christian people?" To this Pius answers, what 
authors since his time have not ceased to answer to 
their critics : " Let him who despises our writings, 
read them before he condemn. They contain much 
from which he may learn ; nor is the time spent in 
their production taken away from public business ; 
but we have deprived our old age of the rest which is 
its due, that we might record the events of our time 
which deserve remembrance. Our labours are carried 
on by night, and we consume in writing the greater 
part of the hours that are due to sleep. It may be 
urged that the time would be better spent in vigils 
and prayers, as it had been by many of his predeces- 
sors ; " but Pius honestly owns that his culture has 
outlived the gloomy rites of mediaeval asceticism. " We 
confess that others might have spent their vigils better, 
but we must give some indulgence to our mind, whose 
delight lies in midnight studies." 

In all other points we are similarly struck with the 

capacity which Pius shows for taking an interest in 
LcfC. 



loo HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

everything he sees: twice in his commentaries does 
he describe with great relish some athletic sports, of 
which he had been a spectator. It is true he feels 
it beneath the Papal dignity to acknowledge the 
interest he felt, and on both occasions, after most 
graphic descriptions of the races, he adds that the 
Pope was not present, but was engaged with the 
Cardinals on business at the time. He describes, 
however, in exactly similar language, a theological 
controversy held in his presence ; a strife had broken 
out between the Minorites and the Dominicans on 
the tremendous question whether the Blood of Christ 
shed on the ground during the Passion were worthy 
of reverence and worship. The strife had waxed high 
between the two rival Orders, till at last the question 
was referred to the Pope. For three days the dispu- 
tants argued before the Consistory. Pius may be 
pardoned for looking upon the proceedings as a kind 
of mental and even bodily gymnastic. " It was beau- 
tiful and delightful to hear the eminent talents of these 
most learned men contend in argument, and to see now 
one and now another press to the front. They strove, 
as became the majesty of their judges, with modera- 
tion and eagerness ; but so severe and sharp was the 
conflict, that, though it was the depth of winter, and 
everything was stiff with frost, the sweat dropped from 
them — such was their ardour for victory." Pius does 
not profess any interest for the question itself, but he 
details at length the arguments on each side, and 
watched its alternations with the same delight as he 
had seen the foot-races at Pienza. 

Thus in his Neapolitan war, in discharging the duties 



iENEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. loi 

of his office, and in mental relaxation by wanderings 
in search of new interests, Pius passed the years 1460- 
64. His health had at first been bad, and grew worse ; 
he could not use his feet, and had always to be carried 
in a litter ; he was a martyr to gout, and suffered 
dreadfully from stone ; he was old before his years ; 
his face showed the marks of the perpetual pains he 
endured, but he had learned self-control, and would 
contrive to talk or speak even when suffering most 
acute agony, and his suffering was known only by the 
contortion of the muscles of his face, or the twitching of 
his lips, " although oftentimes he suffered such agonies 
that there was nothing, except his voice, which could 
show that he remained alive." ^ Life, he saw, could 
not last long, and the question grew more pressing 
every year, — with what fame would his name go down 
to posterity ? 

This was a thought always present with him ; he 
was keenly sensitive to public opinion, and showed 
himself always most anxious to leave a worthy re- 
membrance of himself to after ages. But Pius was 
too acute to mistake the shouts of his own generation 
for fame, or to think that a reputation could be con- 
ferred by the literary panegyrics so common in his 
days ; he had written too many himself, and knew 
their real value. Hence he never showed himself a 
patron of literary men ; the acclamations of needy 
men of letters, which hailed his accession to the 
Papacy, very soon calmed down when their elaborate 
eulogiums were but coldly received, and the gifts 
which they expected failed to appear. Greater still 

1 Campanus, Vita Pii. 



I02 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

was the consternation when it was rumoured that the 
Pope actually set up for being a critic, and laughed at 
the bombastic productions that poured in on every 
side ; it was known that he had said that orators and 
poets ought to be supreme, or they ought not to 
exist. He pulled in pieces the epigrams which were 
sent him ; and an impromptu of his was commonly 
quoted : — 

Discite, pro numeris, numeros sperare poetae ; 
Mutare est animus carmina, non emere.^ 

Even Francesco Filelfo, in spite of his great reputation 
and his early connexion with the Pope, found that 
his offer to be a new Homer, and write the Odyssey 
of Pius's Crusade, was not accepted with the fervour, 
or rewarded with the liberality, which he conceived 
to be his due ; after begging in the most abject 
manner from Pius, he changed his tactics, and wrote 
the most scurrilous and disgusting libels against him. 
Pius knew that his fame could be established only 
by his exploits ; and so, as he saw his life wane, he 
recurred with greater zeal to his project of a Crusade. 
He wrote a remarkable letter to Mahomet II., the 
conqueror of Constantinople, in which he set before 
him the advantages of Christianity, and explained at 
length its doctrines ; he urged the Sultan to be con- 
verted ; he proved to him, historically, that he had no 
right to the possessions which he had lately con- 
quered ; but, if he would only be baptised, this flaw 
in his title might be remedied, the Pope would ac- 
knowledge him Emperor of the Greeks and of the East, 

1 " Take, poets, for your verses verse again : 

My purpose stands to mend, not buy your strain." 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 103 

and would establish him in one of the highest positions 
in Christendom. The letter has been often quoted, but 
its real significance seems to me to have been strangely- 
overlooked ; it is not mere rhetorical bombast or 
empty verbiage — it is a genuine, though, perhaps, not 
very hopeful appeal to the old Imperial principle which 
Pius hoped might still be lingering in the East. He 
had seen the Greek Emperor reconcile himself with 
Eugenius to gain help against the advancing Turks. 
Now the Turks had conquered ; but by gaining a 
place in Europe they might become amenable to 
European ideas. Pius did not understand Islam and 
its strength ; he did not appreciate — how could he ? — 
the difference between the fiery Turks who had cap- 
tured Constantinople, and the Teutons who of old 
had broken up the Empire of the West. He still 
thought there was a chance that the Papacy might 
repeat its bloodless triumphs of the eighth century, 
and that the barbarians of the East might be per- 
suaded, or overawed, to bow before the dignity of the 
Roman Pontiff. The hope was vain, and perhaps 
was not very seriously entertained ; but the hope of 
combining Europe against the Turks, Pius soon learned 
to be equally vain. 

The expedition so long deferred was at length under- 
taken. Europe heard with incredulous wonder that the 
Pope intended to accompany the Crusaders in person ; 
the various powers of Europe gave answers more or 
less plausible to his proposals, but none of them 
sent any troops. Pius waited, and became more im- 
patient and more hopeless of any help. At length he 
determined to allay all doubts of his good faith (for 



104 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the word of the Pope was now, alas ! by no means 
accepted as true) ; the princes of Europe should see 
that he was in earnest — "perchance when they see 
their master and father, the Vicar of Christ, an old 
man and sick, advancing to the war, they will feel 
shame to linger at home ; they will take arms and 
embrace with brave hearts the defence of holy religion. 
If this does not arouse Christians to battle, we know 
not what will — this means, at all events, we will try." 
So the infirm old Pope, though his sufferings were 
aggravated by symptoms of an approaching fever, 
set out from Rome on the 14th of June, 1464, to go 
to Ancona and wait till Christendom gathered en- 
thusiastically round his banner. It was a dangerous 
experiment, and most unwise ; neither Pius himself 
nor his predecessors had established any hold upon 
the affections of Europe. This appeal to the personal 
influence of the Papacy was an entire failure — only 
a few, and they a mere disorderly rabble, assembled 
at Ancona to await the Pope ; and they, when the 
Pope was delayed on his journey by the increase of 
his fever, began to disband ; as Pius neared Ancona, 
his doctors drew the curtains round his litter, that 
he might not have his pain increased by seeing the 
crowds with their faces set from the city. Pius 
reached Ancona on the i8th of July, and lived just 
long enough to realise how entirely his plan had 
failed. His death has shed a halo almost of martyr- 
dom over the entire attempt. There is something 
very touching, to us who review the facts in an after 
age, in the spectacle of the Pope being carried on his 
death-bed to attempt ah undertaking of vital import- 



^NEAS SYLVIUS PICCOLOMINI, POPE PIUS II. 105 

ance for European civilisation, and to attempt it 
single-handed with chivalrous zeal, because all the 
princes of Europe were absorbed in petty jealousies 
and selfish schemes, and had no thought for the com- 
mon good. Yet it was fortunate for Pius that he 
died when he did ; had he lived long enough to re- 
tire unsuccessfully, his proceedings would have been 
greeted with a shout of laughter, and the Papacy 
would have lost its prestige even> more than it did 
under Clement VII. It was reserved for a later time 
that the Papacy should make itself ridiculous in the 
eyes of Europe ; but Pius brought it perilously near 
such a position. 

As it was, however, the bedridden Pope lived three 
weeks at Ancona sinking gradually, and preparing 
for his end ; his last hours show us the same strange 
confusion of littleness and grandeur, of simplicity and 
affectation, of selfishness and goodness which marks 
his entire life. After crying like a child over the 
thought that when he was gone there would be no 
one to look after his nephews — for he knew too well 
the fate of Papal favourites — he died with his arm 
round the neck of his friend, the Cardinal of Pavia, 
and his last words were, " Do good, my son, and pray 
God for me ". 

The briefest record of Pope Pius's career is the 
clearest summary of his character. He was, in a pre- 
eminent degree, a product of his times, whose excel- 
lences and whose failures he mirrors accurately, both 
in his life and writings. They were times when a 
genuine enthusiasm for knowledge was widely spread ; 
but the knowledge of antiquity, when obtained, was 



io6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

remote from the common interests of daily life, and 
was opposed, both in its principles and conclusions, to 
the Christian basis on which mediaeval life had been 
built Hence the learning of the Renaissance could 
not become a source of national thought, and so of 
national life, but only of individual culture. This 
culture Pius II. possessed in a remarkable degree, and 
was susceptible of its slightest warnings, without being 
rendered by it over-sensitive and unfit for the coarser 
struggles of practical life. On the contrary, his culture 
was to him a source of strength in action, giving him 
a keen insight into human character, freeing him from 
ordinary scruples, enabling him to reconstruct his 
plans of life, when necessary, with such promptitude 
that there was no waste of energy and no place for 
remorse : teaching him to make the best of himself, 
and adapt himself to circumstances as they occurred ; 
to aim at self-gratification not merely in the lower, 
but in the higher sense of obtaining power, influence, 
position, dignity ; to form opinions not from internal 
necessity or conviction, but as a convenient padding 
to lessen the wear and tear of daily life ; to gratify 
refined literary tastes and intellectual interests by 
a dainty use of the actual facts and surroundings of 
his position ; to mix refinement with morality so that 
self-respect was never injured, but rather grew with 
every new success. 



107 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE. 

VITTORINO DA FELTRE. 

One of the chief features of the early Renaissance is 
its entire simplicity and straightforward earnestness. 
It was not perplexed by fear lest it might awaken 
antagonism, for it was not conscious of any opposition 
to existing systems of life. It appealed only to men's 
desire to make the best they could of themselves. It 
called upon them to know the value of the treasures 
which were really theirs, but which they had let slip 
from careless hands. Around them were the riches of 
the past, the literature and art of Italy's golden days, 
which a wave of barbarism had scattered and hidden 
too long from the eyes of Italy's true sons. It was an 
object worthy of the best energies of the noblest minds 
to gather together all that could be saved from the 
wreck, to cleanse the remnants carefully and tenderly 
from the dirt and rubbish with which they had been 
encrusted, and then set them lovingly before young 
minds, which might learn from them all that was 
noble in the life of the past. 

This was the spirit of the early Renaissance in Italy. 
It had no hidden meaning, it cherished nothing which 
it need be afraid to tell abroad. It combated nothing 
in existing systems, because it made no claim to have 
a system of its own. It went along its own course 



io8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

with a deep belief in man's perfection, and a deep 
desire to cultivate man's nature into all that it could 
become. 

It is true that a time came when the spiritual en- 
franchisement brought about by the Renaissance began 
to degenerate into licence. This is a danger which all 
movements towards greater freedom have always had 
to face. It is hard to pour new wine into old bottles, 
and there is always the same twofold danger — that 
the bottles will burst, and the wine be spilt. It was 
so with Italy of the later fifteenth century. Spiritual 
freedom tended to run riot ; the self-assertion of the 
individual loosened the bonds of society ; mental 
subtility pared away the obligations of morality ; re- 
ligion was threatened with gradual dissolution before 
the gentle solvent of graceful and playful criticism. 
Culture had become a source of weakness rather than 
of strength. The Italian mind had lost its beliefs, and 
with its beliefs had lost all meaning. Under the hard 
rule of the foreigner, and under the galling fetters of 
the old dogmatic system, restored as a harsh despot, 
and ruling no longer as an indulgent master, Italy was 
doomed to learn, by three centuries of silent suffering, 
how freedom could be woven into the web of daily 
life. 

Yet her experience had not been in vain. In the 
long years of her own darkness she still might feel 
that the torch which she had kindled was blazing 
steadily, if not brightly, in other more favoured lands. 
To mediaeval Italy must all who honour culture turn 
with unfailing reverence ; for she has ever been the 
home of great interpreters who have revealed man to 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 109 

himself, and have taught him in ever-changing forms 
to see and know what is the heritage which the past 
has handed on. 

In the higher lines of literature and art this is perhaps 
sufficiently felt and has been often enough expressed ; 
but in smaller things it is forgotten. We are accus- 
tomed, for instance, to look for the origin of our ideas 
of education to the gradual progress of society, to the 
workings of modern philanthropy or the enlightened 
teaching of modern science. Education amongst us 
has grown slowly to become a part of our political life. 
Its function is held to consist in drilling the young 
into fitness to discharge their duties as citizens. Our 
highest views of education rarely go beyond this. No 
teacher amongst us would venture to say that he had 
no belief in the efficacy of formal outward discipline, 
or of the rigid tests of unbending examinations, but 
that his aim was to develop with care and tenderness 
the youthful spirit into liberty, beauty, and grace. 

It may perhaps be worth while to bring forward 
from his obscurity, for a little while, a great Italian 
teacher of the early and unconscious epoch of the 
Renaissance. Like all men who have been content 
only to teach without aspiring to literary fame, his 
name is seldom heard ; for his labours left no other 
fruit than the noble actions of his scholars, which the 
world claimed for its own and straightway forgot. 
Yet his silence might deserve respect. Enough, he 
said, had been written by those of old ; his work was 
to try and make men understand the meaning of the 
treasures which they already possessed. 

Vittorino dei Ramboldini was born of a noble but 



no HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

poor family in Feltre, in the year 1378. Having a 
taste for learning, he went to the University of Padua, 
where he maintained himself by acting as tutor to 
younger boys while he pursued his own studies. He 
was not satisfied merely with the ordinary reading for 
the doctor's degree, but wished also to obtain a know- 
ledge of mathematics, a science then so little known 
that there was at Padua only one professor who was 
acquainted even with the outlines. He, moreover, 
lectured publicly on philosophy, and refused to part 
with his mathematical knowledge, except to private 
pupils on payment of large fees. These Vittorino's 
poverty made it hopeless for him to pay. In vain he 
strove by entreaties to prevail on the avaricious Biagio 
Pelacane to give him a few lessons for the love of 
knowledge. In vain he tried to melt him by humility 
— even offering to work out the fees by rendering 
menial service. For six months Vittorino acted as 
Pelacane's servant, waiting on him at table, and washing 
his plates and dishes ; but the proud professor was re- 
lentless, and would have nothing but the money. Stung 
by such unworthy treatment, Vittorino procured a 
Euclid, and never rested till he had puzzled out for 
himself its contents, and by tlYat means obtained a 
firm hold of the principles of geometry. He did not, 
however, wish to use his knowledge as food either for 
vanity or avarice. What he had so hardly learned he 
readily taught to any who came to him, till his fame 
spread in Padua and his story became known. Pela- 
cane discovered, when it was too late, that generosity 
in education is the best policy, and that a reputation 
which wishes to stand upon the exclusive possession 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE iii 

of knowledge rests on an insecure footing. He was 
exposed to ridicule, his pupils all deserted him, and 
he had to leave Padua for Parma, where he died five 
years afterwards, in 141 6. 

Henceforward Vittorino had a secure reputation in 
Padua, but he lived as a retired student, teaching a 
few pupils and ready to assist all who came to him. 
He knew much, but still was ignorant of Greek, till, 
in the year 1420, when he was more than forty years 
of age, he went to Venice to learn Greek from Guarino. 
In him he did not find another Pelacane, but a warm- 
hearted student, who gladly taught him all he knew, 
and warmly appreciated his simple moral worth. 
Vittorino returned to Padua, and was regarded by all 
with reverence as a prodigy ; by his own efforts he 
had raised himself to the rank of one of the greatest 
scholars in Italy. He was now past the prime of life 
and had shown no desire for self-advancement, no 
interest beyond a genuine love for knowledge. His 
company was eagerly sought, and his advice reverently 
asked and listened to. In 1422 the students of the 
Gymnasium besought him to be their teacher in 
philosophy and rhetoric. 

At the age of forty-four Vittorino first became a 
public teacher, and instituted that system of education 
on which his reputation is founded. Having no object 
in life except the good of his pupils, he devised the 
plan of living entirely among them. Accordingly he 
chose a few, whom he took to live with him in his 
own house, and whose whole life was spent in his 
presence. Though this was the plan which he after- 
wards developed, he does not seem to have been sue- 



112 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

cessful at first. In a year he resigned his professorship 
at Padua, disgusted by the insolence and vices of his 
pupils, and went to Venice, where he at once opened 
a school. Numbers flocked to him immediately, for 
he was already known there through his acquaintance 
with Guarino. Many, however, who applied to him 
were condemned to disappointment, for he adhered 
rigorously to two rules — that he would not undertake 
to teach more scholars than he could do entire justice 
to, and that he would choose his scholars solely by 
reference to their fitness in character and intellect to 
profit by his teaching. No offers of enormous pay 
could tempt him to relax these rules. The son of the 
wealthy merchant was sent away, as too much spoiled 
already to be made much of ; the beggar boy whose 
face had attracted Vittorino's attention in the street 
was chosen to fill the empty place in his rising school- 
house. He did not, however, remain at Venice long 
enough to develop his system fully ; in 1425 he received 
an invitation from Gian Francesco Gonzaga, lord of 
Mantua, to go to his court and undertake the educa- 
tion of his children. Gonzaga had selected him for 
this office solely on the ground of his merits ; but it 
was some time before Vittorino could determine to 
expose his simple and straightforward character to 
the perils of a court life. He came to the conclusion 
at last that he would not be justified in refusing such 
an opportunity of extending his usefulness. He went 
to Mantua, and there taught without intermission for 
the next twenty-two years, until his death. 

Gian Francesco Gonzaga was a wise and prudent 
ruler, who knew how to consult the interests of his 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 113 

State. The position of his city on a promontory 
between two lakes made it almost impregnable, and 
the Marquis knew how to use his soldiers to advan- 
tage in the perpetual wars between Venice and Milan. 
He was careful always to be well paid, either for his 
services or his neutrality, so his people prospered 
under his rule, and he, in imitation of his more power- 
ful neighbour, Galeazzo Visconti, had instituted a 
luxurious court, and aimed at introducing greater 
refinement and intelligence among his people. His 
wife, Paola dei Malatesti of Rimini, was a woman 
of really noble character, combining with decided 
intellectual tastes great practical benevolence, and 
unaffected affability. The Mantuans regarded her 
with great respect and affection ; " the orphans, the 
poor, and the monks honoured her as children do their 
mother, and the people flocked round her when she 
went into the streets ". Nor was she less beloved by 
her husband, in whose will are contained the strictest 
injunctions to his successor to consult and obey his 
mother in all matters. We may assume that Paola 
had desired to have the best possible education for 
her children, and that her husband made no difficulties. 
He was a worthy man, but not of remarkable elevation 
of mind. Poggio praises him for " virtue, prudence, 
affability, anxious care for the welfare of learned men, 
and unceasing diligence in self-education," and his 
treatment of Vittorino shows that he could certainly 
appreciate merit in others. 

Vittorino was well pleased with his first interview 
with the Marquis. His only request was that he 
might have full authority over the servants of his 

8 



114 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

young pupils, and over the youths who were educated 
with them. He made no stipulation about salary, 
saying that he had come to propagate virtue, not to 
make gain ; but the Marquis made him a liberal 
monthly allowance, and ordered his treasurer more- 
over to pay whatever Vittorino demanded. The 
house in which he was to live with his pupils pleased 
him greatly, but the whole life to which the boys had 
been accustomed seemed to him radically wrong. 
Luxury of every kind, rich food and drink, obsequious 
servants to do the slightest office, a number of the 
noblest youths of Mantua as attendants, all bent on 
commending themselves to the princes, all braggarts 
and flatterers — this was what Vittorino found, and it 
filled him with despair. How was education to pro- 
ceed in such an atmosphere, and how was he to change 
it ? His first thought was to resign his post at once as 
hopeless ; but his second thought was that he was at 
least bound to do his best, and see if the Marquis really 
had confidence in him, and would uphold his authority. 
Accordingly, he waited for a little while, and looked 
on, a passive spectator of the scene around him. He 
allowed every one to think that he was weak and care- 
less, till they behaved in his presence as though he 
were not there, and so showed him their real character. 
When he had by this means obtained sure information 
about them, he suddenly began his reform. All the 
noble youths of Mantua, with only a few exceptions, 
were summarily dismissed. The household was rigor- 
ously cut down, and the exact functions of the remain- 
ing servants were accurately fixed ; a porter was put 
before the door to see that no one went in or out except 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 115 

by Vittorino's permission ; and simple fare took the 
place of luxurious living. Vittorino had waited to 
make sure that his knowledge equalled his zeal, and 
then introduced all his reforms at once, and carried 
them out with decision. Great was the commotion 
in Mantua, and many were the complaints made to 
the Marquis by parents, who felt aggrieved by this 
ignominious expulsion of their sons ; but the military 
habits of the condottiere general made him sympathise 
with vigorous and sweeping measures. He refused to 
interfere, and waited to see some definite results of 
the system thus begun. 

Vittorino was encouraged by this tolerance to per- 
severe and soon produced results about which no one 
could doubt. The young princes were not at first sight 
very promising pupils. Ludovico, the elder, was so fat 
that he could scarcely walk, and moved as if he had 
been made in one piece. His brother Carlo was, on 
the other hand, a tall awkward boy, of weakly and at- 
tenuated appearance. Vittorino felt it was useless to 
makemuch of minds enveloped in bodies such as these. 
His first care was to reduce the size of Ludovico, and 
feed up Carlo into decent proportions. He had a horror 
of corpulence, declaring that the mind must always be 
wearied that had to carry a heavy load, and would never 
be able to see if the cloud of the body were too dense ; 
so he cut down Ludovico's food, and allowed him only 
simple diet. At the same time, not wishing to seem 
cruel, he gave him other amusements ; and often, if he 
saw him eating gluttonously at dinner, would interest 
him in talk to make him forget his absorbing interest 
in his food ; or he would have music and singing intro- 



ii6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

duced to distract his attention, and then would give a 
signal that his plate should be quietly removed. For 
Carlo, on the other hand, he provided simple and 
nutritious diet, telling him to eat whenever he felt 
hungry, but only allowing him between his meals dry 
bread, v/hich would be enough to satisfy his wants with- 
out encouraging him in gluttony. Under this careful 
treatment the boys rapidly improved in health and 
appearance, and their parents understood in a most 
convincing way the wisdom and value of Vittorino's 
training. 

Secure of his position, Vittorino began to develop 
his system. He received numerous applications for 
admission to the vacant places which his expulsions 
had made, but he subjected all candidates to a rigorous 
test and rejected all of whose character he disapproved, 
or who he thought were better fitted for other than 
intellectual pursuits. He chose his pupils reverently, 
and impressed upon them that they were entering upon 
a lofty calling, and that their schoolroom should be 
to them a holy place {tanquam sacellum ingressuros). 
He demanded that they should give up everything to 
their studies, saying that a love of knowledge and a 
love of pleasure could not exist at the same time. He 
preferred the sons of noble parents, if they were equally 
fit, for thorough-bred colts, he said, were best worth 
training ; but he took in and taught with equal care 
poor and ignoble youths who showed signs of promise, 
and the payments made by the wealthy were devoted 
to the necessities of his poorer scholars. Under this 
system Mantua became the great educational centre 
of Italy, and pupils even crossed the Alps to obtain 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 117 

the benefits of Vittorino's teaching. His fame brought 
credit upon the town, and his simple manners and 
entire devotion to his own duties disarmed all possible 
hostility. Mantua soon became proud of him, and he 
was treated with reverence by all. The Marquis rose 
to meet him when he appeared at court, and would 
never suffer him to stand in his presence. Wherever 
Vittorino went the tone of conversation ceased to be 
trivial, and he reproved even the Marquis for loose 
or unseemly talking in his presence ; the reverence 
due to youth was claimed by their teacher. 

Vittorino's method of education was as universal 
and liberal as was the spirit of his age. He aimed 
at cultivating the entire man, in a fulness before which 
all modern definitions of culture seem narrow and one- 
sided. The idea of cultivation at present prevalent is 
that of the refined and high-minded man, who, living 
in the world without being of it, tries to protect himself 
from its sordor by the free play of his critical faculties, 
which he uses with equal freedom upon everything, so 
as ta avoid falling under the tyranny of any. Cultiva- 
tion is realised by abstraction from the current of 
ordinary life. This was not the culture of the Re- 
naissance, for then man felt that the world and all 
its contents were his own possession, and that his 
surroundings could be moulded entirely to his will. 
Vittorino did not arm his pupils merely for defence 
against this world. He equipped them that they 
might conquer it for themselves. Their future was 
dark and admitted of endless possibilities ; they might 
become princes, generals, statesmen, cardinals, bishops, 
or men of letters. Noble birth in those changing times 



ii8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

did not necessarily imply hereditary rights ; obscure 
origin did not hopelessly debar from the richest prin- 
cipalities. Any of the youths before him might be 
called by accident, or win his way by his own talents, 
to the loftiest positions. One thing only was certain, 
that the keen intellect was sure to carve out its fortune. 
So Vittorino trained his pupils in all knightly and 
martial exercises, in which he always took part him- 
self, and taught their bodies agility by athletics, which 
he always superintended. Riding, wrestling, fencing, 
archery, tennis, foot-races, and swimming formed part 
of their daily occupations. Sometimes he would lead 
them to the chase, or instruct them in fishing. Some- 
times he would divide them into squadrons, and 
organise a sham fight ; now he would lead one party 
to the charge, now help their enemy to hold their 
mimic castle, and " his heart rejoiced when their shouts 
went up to heaven and all was filled with dust ". He 
inured them to suffer hardships and be brave, to be 
indifferent to heat and cold, and never shrink from 
danger. " Remember, my dear boys," he used to say, 
" you know not what manner of life Providence may 
have ordained for you." He allowed no lounging 
round the fire even on the coldest day, but insisted 
that the boys should gain warmth by exercise. He 
was careful that their food should be simple, and set 
them an example of extreme sobriety ; as they pressed 
things upon him at meals, he would laugh and say, 
" See how different we are ; you are anxious that I 
should want nothing ; I, on the contrary, am careful 
that you should have nothing unnecessary ". He felt 
that excess of eating and sleeping, and personal in- 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 119 

dolence and effeminacy, were the first fertile sources of 
the moral and physical disorders of youth, and that 
it was useless to attempt to educate the mind if the 
body were neglected. Yet with all this he was most 
careful of their health, watching over each of his pupils, 
and from time to time taking them all to the hills for 
change of air. 

But he did not only develop the body in this way, 
he was most careful also to refine it. He corrected 
all faults in voice and enunciation, removed all awk- 
wardness of manner, remedied small personal defects, 
and instilled dignity and decorum. He taught his 
pupils to avoid all obtrusive peculiarities, and above 
all fidgetiness ; if a boy was restless, he would draw a 
circle on the floor and bid him not come out of it for 
a given time. He insisted on great attention to 
personal neatness, and saw that every boy was well 
dressed in accordance with his rank, and always care- 
fully ; yet he was a bitter foe to foppery, and mocked 
at those who looked at themselves too long in the 
glass : he allowed no scents or unguents, for he con- 
sidered them to be signs of effeminacy. His pupils 
were trained in all social graces as well as in bodily 
prowess : they were taught to dance and sing, that 
they might be fit to shine in the festival as well as on 
the field. 

In matters of intellectual training he was equally 
universal in his principles and method. He did not 
disdain to teach the youngest boys, but rather was 
unwilling to build upon another man's foundation. 
His advice to all who were anxious to prepare for his 
teaching was, " to unlearn at once what by misfortune 



120 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

they had mislearned elsewhere". He taught little 
boys their alphabet by giving them as toys letters of 
various colours. He watched the direction which the 
growing curiosity of the youthful mind most naturally 
took, that he might gain indications of its natural 
capacity and bent. A boy's natural talents, he said, 
were like a field, which if well tilled would produce a 
fruitful crop of knowledge ; but the tillage must be 
adapted to the field, and the boy's mind must be 
indulged in that study in which it took the greatest 
delight. So Vittorino was resolved to supply teach- 
ing in all possible subjects, and trained up teachers 
according to his own views, to whom he would assign 
special branches of knowledge. He even brought 
over four native Greeks that they might teach their 
language accurately. All these masters were treated 
by him with perfect impartiality, and their subjects 
met with equal respect. Civil and canon law and 
natural philosophy were the only special subjects for 
which he did not provide teachers ; but if any student, 
who had gone through his general course, showed an 
aptitude for these pursuits, he advised him in the 
choice of a university, and, if he were poor, maintained 
him during his studies there. In days when manu- 
scripts were a costly possession, Vittorino's library was 
renowned throughout Italy, so that his scholars were 
well provided with every means of study. 

He taught first the ordinary subjects of the Trivium, 
and began by a training in the classical languages, 
literature, and history. " How foolish," exclaims one 
of his disciples, Sassuolo da Prato, "are those who 
strive to study philosophy without an accurate know- 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 121 

ledge of the language in which it is written ; who do 
not know that Plato is like Jupiter speaking Greek, 
and Aristotle rolls on a golden river of speech. No 
wonder that such incompetent inquirers fail to under- 
stand philosophy altogether, and content themselves 
with the barren teaching of the schoolmen ; and while 
they think they are leading home Minerva as their 
chaste bride, know not that it is Calypso, a most 
wanton woman, whom they hold in their embrace." 
From this fatal ignorance Vittorino secured his pupils 
by giving them a broad basis of literary training. 
Virgil, Homer, Cicero, and Demosthenes were the 
authors whom he first taught, and the experience of 
schoolmasters since his days has not been able to 
suggest anything better. When his pupils had ob- 
tained a tolerable knowledge of the classics, they were 
next taught dialectic, the science of sound logic, and 
were well exercised in the examination and detection 
of fallacies in common reasoning. From dialectic 
they went to rhetoric, and were taught to write, 
read, and speak correctly and gracefully. Public dis- 
putations were held by them, and Vittorino sat by to 
judge and arbitrate between their arguments. Mathe- 
matics and music were ordinarily the subjects next 
pursued. 

As a teacher, Vittorino aimed especially at clearness 
and simplicity : he considered carefully beforehand 
the subject on which he was going to lecture, and 
then trusted to the impulse of the moment to enable 
him to state accurately and intelligently what he had to 
say. His expressions, as became his character, were 
always refined and modest ; but he was careful not to 



122 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

seem to commend himself by his method of teaching, 
nor to allow graces of style to hide and overlay the 
matters he was explaining. He did not encourage 
his pupils to ask explanations at once of what they 
could not understand, but bade them go away after 
each lesson and think it over while it was fresh in 
their minds ; if they found any difficulties they were 
to come for explanation afterwards. He was anxious 
to secure attention by kindling interest ; he often pur- 
posely made mistakes in explaining passages from the 
classical authors, to see if his class would correct him. 
He strengthened the memory of his scholars by making 
them learn by heart the finest passages of the authors 
they were reading. He was very careful in looking over 
their exercises, and always pointed out accurately the 
reason for any objections he had to raise. So ready 
was his sympathy with his pupils that he would shed 
tears of joy over a good composition. 

He maintained discipline by his force of character, 
and rarely had recourse to personal chastisement. 
Remonstrances and reproofs were sufficient, for he 
was never suspected of partiality, and was most careful 
to escape being misled by anger. He knew that he 
was naturally of a choleric disposition, and so took 
every precaution against it ; his elder pupils were 
charged, if ever they saw him likely to lose his temper, 
to interrupt him by some question, or call him away 
to ask his opinion on some other subject, that so he 
might have time to recover his equal balance of mind. 
He knew well how to appeal by simple honesty to the 
boyish mind, and all quailed before his anger or scorn. 
He was careful by judicious praise to encourage the 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 123 

timid, and would remorselessly rally the forward to 
cure them of arrogance. 

The moral side of Vittorino's system has been 
already noticed in some of its chief points. He would 
receive no boy whom he did not believe to be free 
from vices, and he allowed no one to come near his 
pupils except by his 'permission. He lived entirely 
among them, and never willingly lost sight of them. 
He fed them simply, and took care that all their time 
was well employed. Being a man of fervent piety, he 
attended mass daily and took his pupils with him. 
He kept far from them everything that could suggest 
disorder or even indecorum. Carlo Gonzaga, some 
time after he had left Vittorino's care returning to his 
old school and engaging in a game of tennis, forgot him- 
self in the excitement of the moment, when he had 
made a bad stroke, and uttered an oath. Vittorino, 
who was standing by as a spectator, sprung upon him, 
seized him by the hair, and boxed his ears soundly, 
overwhelming the youth with such bitter reproaches 
that he fell upon his knees, and, confessing humbly 
his fault, besought Vittorino to forgive him. Moved 
by his sorrow the master's anger passed away, and, 
with tears in his eyes, he thanked Heaven for a pupil 
so obedient to reproof. 

Such is a brief sketch of the various sides of Vit- 
torino's system of education ; his pupils showed forth 
its fruits. Ludovico Gonzaga, who succeeded his 
father in 1444, was not only a second founder to 
Mantua and a great patron of the arts and letters, but 
was beloved by his people for his justice and humanity. 
Carlo Gonzaga, it is true, quarrelled with his brother. 



124 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

and led a wandering life, but was renowned for his 
learning and personal kindliness. The third son, Gian 
Lucido, was a prodigy of learning. Ambogio Tra- 
versari tells us that Vittorino once brought Gian 
Lucido with him on a visit to Camaldoli, when the 
boy, who was only of the age of fourteen, recited a 
Latin poem of 200 lines, which he had written in 
honour of a visit of the Emperor Sigismund to Mantua. 
" The poem was beautiful, but the sweetness with which 
it was recited increased its nobility and elegance. 
This amiable youth showed us two propositions which 
he had added to the geometry of Euclid. There was 
also a daughter of the Marquis, about the age of twelve, 
who wrote Greek with such elegance that I felt ashamed 
of myself when I thought that scarcely one of my 
pupils could write it so well." 

The daughter here mentioned, Cecilia Gonzaga, was 
a devoted pupil of Vittorino, and afterwards, to the 
great anger of her father, refused to marry the pro- 
fligate Oddantonio of Montefeltro, Count of Urbino, 
and insisted upon taking the veil. The fame of her 
learning and piety is widely spread among the writers 
of the time. The youngest son of the Marquis, 
Alessandro Gonzaga, suffered under ill-health, which 
he bore with patience, devoting all his time to literary 
pursuits, and living a retired and contented life till 
his death. 

It would be tedious to enumerate the various men 
of literary and political eminence in their day who 
came from Vittorino's school and bore the impress of 
his training. A glance down the long list of his pupils 
shows how his teaching influenced the times ; but one 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 125 

shines among them, who was Vittorino's favourite 
pupil, and whose noble life testifies that he deserved 
his master's preference — Federigo, who, on the murder 
of Count Oddantonio, was called by the people of 
Urbino to be their prince. Federigo of Urbino is the 
ideal Italian prince — a bold and successful general, a 
wise and merciful governor, a bounteous patron of arts 
and letters, a most polished and accomplished cavalier 
whose ready courtesy extended to the humblest of his 
subjects. He was a true father of his people, to whom 
they all flocked for advice and assistance in their 
personal difficulties, and whose sympathy and help 
the poorest knew he could claim. Under him Urbino 
grew into a political and literary capital, and his fame 
was so far spread abroad that Edward IV. of England 
sent to invest him with the Order of the Garter.^ 

The account of Vittorino's school is also the history 
of his life; for all his interests were centred in his pupils, 
and when friends exhorted him to marry he would 
point to his scholars and exclaim, "These are my 
children ". All the money which he received he spent 
in the maintenance of poor students, or in acts of charity. 
He was diligent in visiting the poor, he ransomed 
slaves, released debtors from prison, supplied medicine 
to those who could not afford to buy it, and indulged 
in the graceful charity of providing dowers for poor 

1 A few other names may be worth mentioning of Vittorino's more 
eminent pupils : Francesco Priendlacqua of Mantua, who wrote his 
life ; Gregorio Corraro of Venice ; Giambattista Pallavicini, Bishop of 
Reggio; Taddeo de' Manfredi, Lord of Imola; Antonio Beccaria of 
Verona ; Francesco da Castiglione ; Gregorio Guarino, whose father 
sent him to Vittorino as better able to teach than himself, and Lorenzo 
Valla. 



126 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

and deserving girls. For these purposes he drew from 
the Prince's treasury such sums as he thought he might 
reasonably take as almoner. If he wanted more he 
would apply to the wealthy men in the city, and never 
failed to have his requests supplied. 

The only important event that disturbed his orderly 
life was the quarrel between the Marquis and his eldest 
son, Ludovico, who, thinking himself slighted by his 
father, ran away to Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of 
Milan, in 1436. His father, enraged at the political 
complications to which this gave rise, obtained from 
the Emperor Sigismund an authorisation enabling him 
to disinherit the rebellious boy. Vittorino tried to 
make peace, and was assisted in this emphatically, but 
not wisely, by the eccentric sage Poggio Bracciolini. 
His proceedings in the matter give an amusing speci- 
men of the relations existing at that time between 
princes and men of letters. Poggio wrote to Vittorino, 
saying that, though they only knew one another by 
name, he had heard so much of Vittorino's love for 
learning and learned men, that he felt no scruple in 
lading him with the duty of delivering to the Marquis 
of Mantua a letter which he enclosed. The letter con- 
tained a good scolding for the Marquis. His son, 
Poggio said, had done wrong, it was true, but it was 
the father's fault for treating him unkindly. His 
offence had not been against the State, but against his 
father, and he had done himself more harm by his 
proceedings than he had done his father. It was not 
right to punish him so severely. " I know," said 
Poggio, "that princes are praised whatever they do, 
and are surrounded by flatterers, who always approve 



r 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 127 

of their plans. I write to give you good and sound 
advice." Vittorino doubted whether the letter would 
produce the effect which Poggio desired ; so he waited 
two months before presenting it, perhaps trying mean- 
while to prepare the Marquis's mind for what was 
coming. His efforts, however, were in vain, as Gonzaga 
refused to receive the letter, and ordered Vittorino to 
send it back. Great was Poggio's indignation. He 
wrote angrily to Vittorino for not having executed his 
commission at once. A Marquis of Mantua, he bitterly 
remarked, is not a second Caesar, that his time should 
be so valuable as not to receive a letter when sent. 
If he had been a man of any culture such a letter 
would have been acceptable to him. It certainly was 
good enough for him, for it had been shown beforehand 
to the Pope, and had met with his approval. At the 
same time Poggio wrote a respectful yet stinging letter 
to the Marquis ; he had heard that he had literary 
tastes, and assumed that he was consequently polished 
and refined, and superior to vulgar insolence and pride. 
Trusting to this belief, he had ventured to write and 
address him. He was sorry his letter had not been 
received as he expected : however, the Marquis was 
the best judge of his own matters. The letter would 
be shown to those who could appreciate it, as it was 
founded on reason and supported by arguments which 
had cogency in themselves, and did not depend merely 
on their favourable reception by him to whom they 
were addressed. 

We do not know the end of this squabble. Most 
probably the fear of affronting one who could use his 
pen with such pungency as Poggio, induced the Marquis 



128 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

to receive his letter at last. At all events, a few years 
afterwards Poggio writes of Gian Francesco Gonzaga 
in a friendly tone, which he would not have adopted 
if any grudge had rankled in his breast. The un- 
happy quarrel between father and son was settled 
by natural affection and motives of policy, and Gian 
Francesco laid aside his intention of disinheriting his 
son, to Vittorino's great joy. 

Little remains to be told of Vittorino's life. He 
died at the age of sixty-eight, in 1446, two years after 
the accession of his pupil Ludovico. He continued 
teaching up to the time of his death, and reaped the 
fruits of his healthy and regular life by entire freedom 
from the annoyances of old age. His biographers 
record their admiration that he showed no signs of 
decaying faculties or decreasing vigour. He was in 
appearance a little man, of impetuous temperament, 
of spare habit of body, with a fresh, ruddy complexion 
and sharp features, and a frank, honest, and genial 
expression of countenance. 

Vittorino da Feltre possessed an honesty and sim- 
plicity of character, together with a noble self-devotion 
to a great cause, which would always arrest the atten- 
tion of any one who came upon the record of his life. 
But besides his moral worth, the actual work on which 
he was engaged is still of living interest for us. The 
system of education existing at present is the legacy 
of the Renaissance impulse ; the ideal of a " classical 
education " is embodied in the system which Vittorino 
carried out. 

But Vittorino lived in one of the rare periods of the 
world's history when man had realised his spiritual 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 129 

freedom ; when the world had lost its terrors, and its 
irreconcilable antagonisms were for a short space at 
rest ; when, like Dante at the entrance of the earthly 
Paradise, man felt both crown and mitre fixed firmly 
upon his brow. At such time the teacher, withheld by 
no inner contradictions, might venture to make his 
teaching a real reproduction of the variety of actual 
life. He was not bound to develop merely the intel- 
lect, through fear of venturing into dangerous regions 
of discussion if he advanced beyond simple intellectual 
training. He was not restrained from encouraging to 
their fullest extent all manly exercises through fear 
that they would become too engrossing, for Italian 
society was too refined to admit a mere athlete into 
any position of prominence. He was not checked in 
the adaptation of his teaching to the real conditions 
of life by the pre-eminent necessity of maintaining a 
decent standard of morality among an unwieldy and 
unmanageable mob of boys, unnaturally removed from 
the ordinary motives to conduct. 

In this last point lies the great difference between 
Vittorino's teaching and all modern methods. He 
dealt with boys whom he had previously selected as 
likely to profit by his teaching, — dealt with a number 
sufficiently small to allow of his real personal super- 
vision. He lived amongst them an honest, simple life, 
and the fact of his presence among them was the founda- 
tion and the system of order and discipline. There 
was no oppressive enforcement of trivial rules, insig- 
nificant in themselves and founded upon no obvious 
principle ; but master and pupils lived a common life, 
and acted freely together, because their ends were the 

9 



I30 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

same, and because the life they led was not different 
in kind, though simpler, healthier, and more active in 
degree than the common life of the world whose voice 
surged round the walls of their schoolrooms. Schools 
amongst us are founded on a quite different basis from 
that of Vittorino. They are great public institutions 
for the good of certain classes in society, into which 
any one can claim admission, and from which expul- 
sion is regarded as a serious disgrace. Hence they 
are overgrown, and unmanageable except by a system 
of military discipline. To discipline, mainly, are given 
up the energies of those engaged in education, and 
the real moral and intellectual advancement of the 
individual pupil is subordinate to the formal organisa- 
tion of the society. Schools grow up each with a 
recognisable type of character of its own, with traditions 
and customs which every now and then, when brought 
into prominence, create equal astonishment and disgust 
in the minds of those who have not been subjected to 
them, with a set of principles which have often to be 
exchanged, and always to be largely modified by the 
schoolboy when he goes out into the world. This 
essential difference, which is the fault, not of our 
schools, and still less of their teachers, but of our 
whole social condition and our social aims, renders 
impossible amongst us the flower of perfect training 
which Vittorino tried to cultivate and develop. 

Vittorino's teaching was as broad and liberal as 
was the life of man, and aimed at nothing less than 
the full development of individual character, the entire 
realisation of all human capacity and force. Yet it is 
wonderful to notice how this revolt against the narrow 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 131 

ecclesiastical spirit of the Middle Ages, this deliberate 
working out of the freedom which the Renaissance had 
proclaimed, still clothed itself in the trappings of the 
old monastic institutions, and modelled itself after the 
fashion of that which it had risen to subvert. Vittorino 
arose a monk of the order of the Renaissance, who 
went out into the wilderness and gathered round him 
a little band, whom he trained that they might labour 
after he was gone, till the waste places should blossom 
like the rose. He would have no half-hearted disciples ; 
they must give themselves entirely up to him, and 
submit themselves to his will. " Unlearn," such were 
his requirements from a neophyte, "what grossness 
you have mislearned before. Purge your mind from 
every prejudice and vicious habit, and give yourself 
up entirely to a teacher who bestows on you a father's 
care, and whom you must obey as a son." He trained 
them up to an ascetic system, not that they might 
elevate the spirit by subduing the flesh, but that they 
might acquire wholesome habits, and "have their 
bodies better fitted for all exercises of knightly and 
courtly grace ". He was their intellectual director and 
father confessor, to whom they came and told all the 
deviations of which they had been guilty from the 
course of life and study which he had laid down foi 
them. His disciples went forth and preached to 
others the glories of their master, and stirred up 
sluggish souls to intellectual efforts. Here is a letter 
of one of Vittorino's zealous converts, Sassuolo da 
Prato : — 

" Let two things only be abolished, first bad masters, 
who being themselves ignorant of liberal arts, neces- 



132 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

sarily cannot teach them to others : secondly, those 
parents, the plagues of children, who, blinded by the 
most unworthy desires, are unable to see the brilliancy 
of virtue. For how few fathers are there in this our 
day who take their sons to school, with no other object 
than that they may come back really better ! Every 
one despises literary culture, admires and loves law 
and medicine as the means best adapted for making 
money. The study of literature, they assert, is simply 
a short-cut to ruin. Nor is this only the opinion of 
the ignorant multitude ; but, what is more grievous to 
be borne, philosophers, themselves teachers of wisdom 
and instillers of virtue, allow their pupils to turn their 
attention to any source of sordid gain, to any servile 
task, rather than spend their time on liberalising studies. 
Oh, wretched times ! oh, age — would that I could call 
it iron, but it produces nothing but softness, languor, 
and effeminacy ! But it is useless to storm. The 
recovery of the parents is desperate, as their disease is 
inveterate. But let us rather admonish and exhort 
youths who are fired with zeal for letters and virtue, 
to hold firm to the belief that natural affection itself 
requires them to oppose the wishes of parents such as 
these, and to hold to virtue. If they take my advice, 
they will shun not only all intercourse with their parents, 
but even their eye, as though it were a basilisk's, and 
will betake themselves instead to the excellent Vit- 
torino, the common father of all studies. By him, let 
them trust me, they will be received with such hospi- 
table liberality that they will feel no further regret for 
relatives or home. Moreover they will have all the 
opportunities of study which they can desire, first, store 



A SCHOOLMASTER OF THE RENAISSANCE 133 

of books, then teachers, both of Latin and Greek, not 
only Vittorino himself, but many others able and eru- 
dite, from whom they may learn oratory, mathematics, 
and philosophy." 

We seem to hear a pupil of a new St. Francis preach- 
ing to all enthusiastic youths that they should break 
through every natural tie, and embrace the higher life 
of literary culture which this great teacher has to set 
before them. 

In the same tone of respectful reverence does the 
pleasant Florentine biographer of the worthies of the 
fifteenth century, Vespasiano da Bisticci, speak of 
him : — 

" Vittorino's sole employment was to show to others 
the admirable example of his own life, to exhort and 
rouse all to a life of good habits, showing them that 
all things that we do in this world, ought to be done 
that we may so live as to receive in the end the fruits 
of our labours. He was not content to give, solely for 
the love of God, what he had gained by his own sweat 
and toil, but he laboured that others might do likewise. 
Poor boys, whom he undertook to educate, he not only 
taught for the love of God, but supported in all their 
needs ; nor was it enough that he should spend his 
own salary in so doing, but every year, to supply their 
wants, himself went forth as a beggar. Almighty God, 
how great a light of Thy grace had Vittorino, who, 
having read the words of Thy Holy Gospel, ' Give and 
it shall be given,' not only did it with his substance, 
leaving himself nothing, but laboured that others should 
do the same." 

Such was Vittorino da Feltre, a true Saint of the 



134 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Renaissance, who combined all the breadth and fulness 
of the new culture with all the zeal of the old faith, and 
by a life of cultivated asceticism and reflective self- 
denial laboured to stamp upon the minds of his dis- 
ciples the impress of his own character, the breadth 
and fervour of his own knowledge. 



135 



A MAN OF CULTURE. 

Rimini is a spacious town, with many large piazzas. 
It lies pleasantly on the bank of the river Marecchia, 
whose mouth once formed a fine harbour, but the sea 
has receded and has left its traces on the marshy tract 
which now separates the town from the coast. The 
country immediately round Rimini is a plain lying 
between the sea and the spurs of the Umbrian Ap- 
pennines, which form a fine background to the fertile 
fields. Most striking among these hills is the rugged 
outline of Monte Titano, which shelters the towers of 
San Marino. 

Apart from its pleasant surroundings, Rimini is a 
town full of varied interest. Its position at the mouth 
of a river marked it out in the earliest times as an 
important place. It was an old Umbrian settle- 
ment ; and under the Romans was a stronghold on 
the frontier of Italy proper, at the junction of the two 
great Roman roads — the Via Flaminia and the Via 
Emilia — which formed the chief lines of communica- 
tion between Rome and the north. The student of 
Roman antiquity will find in Rimini two splendid 
memorials of the early Empire. Augustus began, and 
Tiberius finished, a massive bridge over the Marecchia 
at the point of junction of the two great roads. The 
bridge has withstood even the treacherous changes of 



136 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the sandy river, whose deposits have driven back the 
sea a thousand yards since the bridge was built. It 
is true that the pillars have slowly sunk, the bridge 
has lost its original roundness, and the grace of its 
proportions has suffered. But the main structure has 
survived, and only one of its fine arches shows traces 
of repair. The key-stones of the arches, adorned with 
vases carved in relief, the niches of which relieve the 
wall spaces between the arches, the massive cornice 
with its rich sweep of moulding — all these denote the 
thoroughness and carefulness of Roman workmanship. 
Equally important is the triumphal arch of Augustus, 
which spans the road leading from the town to the 
bridge. It is built of Istrian limestone, and has on 
each side of the arch a Corinthian column which once 
held a statue on the top. Between the two columns 
and the arch are medallion reliefs, which still remain — 
heads of Jupiter, Minerva, Mars and Venus. The 
architrave has been somewhat spoiled by additions 
of mediaeval brickwork, which were requisite to con- 
vert the arch into a fortified gateway in the city wall. 
Still, the proportions of the arch and its fine sculptured 
work had a powerful attraction for the great architect 
who in after days drew from it his inspiration for the 
great artistic monument of the city. 

I need not trace the fortunes of Rimini in the 
troubled times that followed on the fall of the Roman 
Empire. Nominally it passed into the territory which 
was subject to the Holy See. Really, it followed the 
example of other Italian cities, and passed under the 
domination of a noble family, the Malatesta, who from 
their castle of Verucchio, on a rock a few miles down 



A MAN OF CULTURE 137 

the Marecchia, developed such a habit of interfering 
in the affairs of Rin:iini that their permanent protection 
was found necessary by the citizens. Early in their 
history the Malatesta lords of Rimini appear in a lurid 
light, and the verses of Dante have rendered immortal 
the story of the unhappy love of Francesca da Polenta, 
wife of Giovanni Malatesta, for her husband's brother 
Paolo, surnamed II Bello. 

I pass on, however, to the most famous of his line, 
Gismondo Malatesta, who ruled over Rimini from 1432 
to 1468, and made his city one of the great centres of 
Italian art. 

If we read only the records of the history of the time, 
we should reckon Gismondo Malatesta as a brutal 
ruffian, little removed from a bandit, who was the 
scourge of Italy, and whose violence was restrained by 
no considerations either of principle or expediency. 
He was excommunicated by Pope Pius II. as a heretic 
who denied the immortality of the soul, and had com- 
mitted every crime, mentionable and unmentionable 
alike. His life, the Pope says in a summary, was 
defiled by every villainous and disgraceful deed. Nay, 
the Pope burned him in effigy in Rome ; and it is 
worth noting that he employed the best sculptor in 
the city to make the effigy, and paid handsomely to 
have a good one. "The effigy" says Pius II. with 
complacency, "had the face, the figure, the dress of 
Gismondo, so that you would have said it was the 
man himself rather than his semblance." Out of the 
mouth of the figure issued a legend, " I am Gismondo 
Malatesta, king of traitors, enemy of God and men ". 
This is a terrible character ; but it must be remem- 



138 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

bered that papal censures are never wanting in compre- 
hensiveness. Pius II. had no cause to love Gismondo 
Malatesta ; but though he fulminated against him as 
Pope, he still had something to say for him in private. 
" Gismondo Malatesta," he writes, " had great powers 
of mind and body, and was richly endowed with 
eloquence and military skill. He knew history, had 
no small acquaintance with philosophy, and, whatever 
subject he pursued, seemed born for it especially." 

Strange as it may seem, these two judgments of 
Pius II. were both true, and Gismondo Malatesta is 
the most conspicuous example of the wondrous con- 
tradictions of character in which the Renaissance 
period was so fertile. Gismondo thoroughly mastered 
the lesson that to man all things are possible. He 
trusted to himself, and to himself only. He pursued 
his desires, whatever they might be. His appetites, 
his ambition, his love of culture, swayed his mind in 
turns, and each was allowed full scope. He was at 
once a ferocious scoundrel, a clear-headed general, an 
adventurous politician, a careful administrator, a man 
of letters and of refined taste. No one could be more 
entirely emancipated, more free from prejudice, than 
he. He was a typical Italian of the Renaissance, com- 
bining the brutality of the Middle Ages, the political 
capacity which Italy early developed, and the eman- 
cipation brought by the new learning. 

Italy alone could supply the position which rendered 
such a man possible. Nominally a vassal of the Holy 
See, he knew that he must maintain himself by his 
own capacity against the growing power of the Pope 
and the hostility of powerful neighbours. To fortify 



A MAN OF CULTURE 139 

and embellish his capital were measures of political 
wisdom as well as of private preference. Moreover, it 
was necessary for him to hold a larger position in 
Italian affairs, and to enjoy larger revenues than the 
lordship of Rimini could give. For this purpose he, 
like other petty rulers, adopted the profession of a 
soldier. On the decay of the old citizen militia there 
grew up in Italy bands of mercenary troops, whose 
services were hired to those States which wished to 
go to war. At first these troops were led by foreign 
adventurers ; in time the Italians organised bands of 
their own. The leaders of these condottieri rapidly 
rose to importance ; and the princely house of Sforza, 
at Milan, sprang from a peasant of the Romagna, who 
embraced the profession of arms. Soon, however, 
these wandering generals were superseded by the 
smaller rulers of cities, who undertook the task of 
keeping under their command bodies of troops, whom 
they were willing to let out to hire to those of their 
neighbours whose pockets could afford the expensive 
luxury of war. It was not altogether a bad bargain for 
commercial states. The Florentines and Venetians 
could employ their time more profitably in trade than 
in military training, and when they wanted soldiers 
they hired them from the lords of such cities as Rimini 
or Urbino, who had time at their disposal for soldiers' 
work. Yet this mode of warfare had its disadvantages. 
The condottieri fought as a means of earning their 
livelihood, and were inspired by no patriotic motives. 
In war after war the same forces came together — some- 
times allied, sometimes as enemies. Each general knew 
the ways of the rest, and conventions were established 



I40 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

for the purpose of conducting battles as cheaply as 
possible. Blows, however, were not much in favour ; 
campaigns were carried on with much strategy, but 
engagements were rare. When a fight took place 
there was little loss of life ; those who fell were mostly 
overthrown by the crush of their comrades. Defeat 
involved the vanquished in imprisonment until their 
ransom was paid. 

Thus warfare was a very gentlemanly proceeding, 
and everything depended on the good faith of the 
general towards his employers. Before he took the 
field he bargained for terms, and a formal contract 
was drawn up and signed. Then he led the stipulated 
number of troops to the city which employed them, 
and which generally supplied a few soldiers of its 
own. Their temporary army was reviewed before the 
citizens, and one of the magistrates made a stirring 
harangue to the troops, and gave the commander the 
city standard. All this was gratifying to the Italian 
love of pomp, and troops were generally estimated by 
the cleanliness of their armour and the splendour of 
their trappings. When the ceremonial was over the 
general led his soldiers to the field ; and they entered 
on their campaign with light hearts, for they knew 
they would be well paid, and that no great mischief 
would befal them. The Italian genius turned even 
warfare into a fine art. 

Chief among the condottieri of his day was Gismondo 
Malatesta, and his ancestors had been so before him. 
Gismondo himself showed his courage very early. At 
the age of thirteen he delivered Rimini by leading the 
soldiers to make a night attack upon the beleaguering 



A MAN OF CULTURE 141 

forces. At the age of fifteen, immediately after his 
accession to the lordship of Rimini, he fought and 
won a decisive battle, which freed his dominions from 
the army which the Pope had sent against them. 

This precocity is characteristic of Gismondo's 
nature. He early learned to depend solely and 
wholly on himself Growing up in watchfulness and 
in suspicion, he knew the value of energy and deceit. 
Tall, slender, with an aquiline nose and keen bright 
eyes, his face was full of penetration and quickness. 
His bearing commanded respect and true obedience. 
His soldiers trusted him, for he shared all their toils, 
and was the first in every danger. He was a steady 
disciplinarian, but he was strictly just, and he had a 
ready eloquence which moved men's hearts. His 
courage was quite heroic ; he shrank from no danger, 
and succumbed to no fatigue. He went hungry or 
sleepless without a murmur, and asked no one to do 
what he was not willing to be the first to do himself. 
Passionate in the satisfaction of his personal desires, 
he could direct a siege with the utmost patience, 
and in the middle of his military operations could 
dictate letters to Piero della Francesca about paint- 
ings, or to Lorenzo de Medici concerning the decoration 
of a chapel. 

His artistic interests, moreover, curiously affected 
his political conduct. Once he had hired his troops 
to Alfonso of Naples against Florence. The Floren- 
tines sent their learned chancellor Geanozzo Manetti 
as an ambassador to Gismondo ; and Manetti so 
fascinated him by his talk and by a present of trans- 
lations of newly discovered Greek manuscripts, that 



142 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Gismondo agreed to remain neutral. One is sorry, 
however, to find that his self-denial did not go so far 
as to lead him to return to Alfonso the instalment of 
pay which he had already received. Another time, 
when fighting for Venice in the Morea, he went to 
visit the famous Platonist, Gemistus Plethon. Find- 
ing him recently buried, he disinterred his remains 
from ground polluted by the Turk, and carried them 
reverently to Rimini. 

Equally remarkable are the contrasts in his private 
life. At times he acted like a savage brute, at others 
he was a model of courtesy. He is said, for instance, 
to have seated one of his servants on the fire, and held 
the poor wretch there till he perished. A terrible 
story was current of his wild and savage passion for 
a German lady who passed through Rimini with her 
husband, and how he lay in ambush to seize her on 
her departure. Her escort was stronger than he ex- 
pected, and fought desperately, till at last Gismondo, 
unable to endure the thought that his prey might 
escape, rushed madly at the lady and foully slew her. 
Yet this same man felt a profound and intellectual 
love for a lady of Rimini, Isotta degli Atti, to whom 
he wrote poems, and whom he celebrated in every 
way that art made possible. It is true that he married 
two wives from political motives, but Isotta was the 
lady of his heart, and in the end he married her as 
his third wife. The following sonnet shows plainly 
enough the sincerity of Gismondo's passion, and is a 
fair specimen of his poetic power : it is addressed 
'*To Isotta" :— 



A MAN OF CULTURE 143 

O delicate sweet light, soul lifted high, 

O gentle creature, from whose worthy face 

Beams the clear lustre of an angel's grace, 

In your sole excellence my hope doth lie : 

My safety's anchor, rooted fixedly. 

You moor my feeble bark in one safe place ; 

My being's prop and stay in every case : 

Pure turtle dove of sweet simplicity. 

The grass, the flowers, bend low before your tread, 

Rejoiced to be of such sweet foot the prize. 

Stirred gently by your azure mantle's sweep ; 

The sun, when in the morn he lifts his head, 

Rises vainglorious, but when you he spies 

Discomfited he hastes away to weep. 

The many representations of Isotta which have come 
down to us do not suggest any physical charms which 
could account for Gismondo's profound and lasting 
attachment to her. She looks tall, gaunt, bony, large- 
featured, with a prominent nose and a long ungraceful 
neck. Her strong character, rather than her personal 
beauty, must have made her attractive to Gismondo. 
At all events, he paid her homage such as rarely falls 
to lady's share. Medallists, sculptors and painters 
reproduced her face ; poets were bidden to sing her 
praises ; the monogram $ of Sigismundus and Isotta 
adorns the works which commemorate Gismondo's 
name, and the inscriptions Isotta Italice Decus, Div<z 
Isottce Sacrum still testify to the wish that her name 
should be immortalised. 

This sketch of the character of Gismondo Malatesta 
is necessary for the understanding of the great monu- 
ment which he raised in Rimini, every detail of which 
bears the impress of the personality of its founder. 
In token of his gratitude for his success in war, Gis- 



144 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

xnondo vowed in 1445 to build a church in Rimini, and 
he carried out his design in a way which made his 
church unique among the ecclesiastical buildings of 
Italy. Even in his own day Gismondo's church was 
an amazing thing, and Pope Pius II. said, "He built 
in Rimini a noble church in honour of St. Francis, but 
he so filled it with pagan works that it seemed not so 
much a Christian church as a temple of unbelievers 
who adored false gods ". Posterity has endorsed the 
Pope's opinion, and to this day the church is little 
known by the name of its patron saint, but is called in 
Rimini the Tempio Malatestiano (the Temple of the 
Malatesta). Gismondo chose as the object of his vow 
the existing church of St. Francis, the burial place of 
his family, and he summoned as his architect the 
great Florentine, Leo Battista Alberti. 

Few men, even amongst Italians, possessed greater 
natural gifts, and cultivated them with greater care, 
than did Alberti. His many-sidedness, his versatility, 
his vast knowledge, and his fine perception are equally 
marvellous. Supreme in martial exercises and athletic 
sports, he was eminent as a musician, as a scholar, an 
architect, a painter and a poet. He was also a student 
of the exact sciences, physics, mechanics, astronomy, 
medicine and law. In Florence he has left us proofs 
of his architectural skill in the fagade of S. Maria 
Novella, and in the severe and stately lines of the 
Rucellai Palace. If Brunelleschi was the founder of 
Renaissance architecture, Alberti gave life to the classi- 
cal forms of construction, and nowhere more conspicu- 
ously than in his work at Rimini. 

Gismondo's first intention was to rebuild the church 



A MAN OF CULTURE 



145 



of St. Francis, but out of respect for the tombs and 
chapels which it contained he changed his plan, and 
commissioned Alberti to enclose the brick building of 
the thirteenth century in a case of marble, so as to 
preserve the old chapels. This difficult task Alberti 
accomplished, his genius only found greater scope in 
grappling triumphantly with the limitations imposed 
upon it. For the fagade Alberti took his inspiration 
from the noble proportions of the Arch of Augustus. It 
was a happy thought to weave together the past and 
present glories of the city, and mark significantly the 
nature of the architectural revival which he had under- 
taken. Three stately arches, separated by Corinthian 
pillars, form the facade ; in the middle of the central 
arch is a simple doorway giving access to the cathedral. 
Massive simplicity and grace of proportion give this 
arrangement an exquisite charm. The sole orna- 
mentation is on the strip of red Verona marble which 
crowns the basement and supports the bases of the 
columns. As this was exposed to rough usage, the 
ornaments are simple and not cut in relief, but the 
monogram of Sigismund and Isotta alternates with the 
rose and elephant, the badges of the Malatesta, and here 
and there are medallions with inscriptions and coats- 
of-arms. Only in the spaces above the arches hang 
six crowns of flowers and fruit, like votive garlands, 
and on either side of the door are carved long-flowing 
wreaths to represent the offerings of the faithful. A 
massive entablature surmounts this first storey of the 
fagade, and above it rise two pilasters which enclose a 
bay. Unfortunately, the work was never finished, and 

the gable of the old Gothic church peeps out incongru- 

10 



146 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

ously between the pilasters. The imagination has to 
supply the rest of Alberti's design. The side walls 
are treated with equal simplicity and grace. A series 
of arches, of the same size as the side arches of the 
facade, form an arcade along the walls ; but they are 
real arches, leaving visible the walls of the old church, 
and in the recesses which they form are placed antique 
sarcophagi containing the bones of men of letters 
whom Gismondo delighted to honour. It should 
rather be said that they were meant to contain their 
bones, for most of them are cenotaphs. Here, however, 
rest the remains of Gemistus Plethon, which Gismondo 
brought from the Morea, and each of the tombs is 
inscribed with the glories of him for whom it was 
intended. 

If the outside of the church is imposing through its 
simplicity, the interior is overwhelming by the richness 
of its ornamentation. Yet even here the severity of 
the early Renaissance is at once apparent. The 
main lines of the architecture are respected, and the 
decoration is but an embroidery, not an addition to 
the structure. The interior shows a nave of large ex- 
panse, with four chapels on each side, separated from 
one another by a space of wall, flanked by pillars 
which support Gothic arches extending to the roof 
One chapel on each side has been walled in, to make 
it a more secure receptacle for precious relics ; the 
other six are separated from the nave by balustrades 
of marble and porphyry. Each chapel is lighted by 
two Gothic windows, between which stands the altar. 
The walls and chapels of the interior are those of the 
old building, and Alberti's skill is conspicuous in the 



A MAN OF CULTURE 147 

harmonious blending of the two styles. On classical 
columns rises a Gothic arch at the entrance of each 
chapel, but the pilasters which are carried up between 
the arches reconcile the eye to the transition between 
the two styles which is everywhere apparent. 

Wherever the eye falls it meets with decoration, rich 
through its profusion, yet severely simple in its details. 
All is of the same period ; all is dominated by the 
same thought, and inspired by the same taste. Every- 
thing is full of symbol and allegory, yet the symbolism 
is not Christian, but speaks of Gismondo and Isotta, 
and the glories of the Malatesta line. Monograms, 
scutcheons, crests recur in new combinations on the 
balustrades, the friezes, the pavement, the roof, every- 
where. Roses, elephants, and the interlaced initials 
of Isotta and her lover meet the eye in the most un- 
expected places. Elephants of black marble form 
caryatides of pillars or support tombs against the wall. 

Everything speaks of the lord of Rimini, everything 
is inspired by the simple elegance of the classic style. 
The spirit of old Roman art has been set to express 
the passionate aspirations of mediaeval Italy, and the 
splendid result has been employed as the decoration 
of a Christian church. Nowhere has the Italian Re- 
naissance expressed itself so frankly, so joyously, as 
in the temple of the Malatesta at Rimini. 

Every detail of this decoration merits attentive study. 
On the side walls of the chapels are carved in slight 
relief lovely forms of choiring angels; on the balustrades 
stand Cupids bearing scutcheons ; the columns are 
adorned with plaques of marble reliefs, where, from a 
blue background, allegorical figures detach their simple 



148 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

outlines. The work is conceived in the Tuscan manner, 
which Donatello perfected, but it has an abandonment 
and joyousness of its own. We ask ourselves what 
does it mean, and whence did it come? The best 
answer to these questions has so far been given by M. 
Yriarte in his important work on Rimini. 

Many of the reliefs explain themselves, and are but 
purely decorative. The most beautiful among them 
is a series representing cherubs playing upon instru- 
ments of music. Draped musicians play the guitar, 
beat the tambourine, dance with cymbals, and blow 
trumpets ; while others sport with the emblems of 
Isotta and the badge of Gismondo. The whole work- 
manship recalls the sculpture of Luca della Robbia 
and Donatello for the music gallery of the cathedral 
of Florence, and the sculptors at Rimini were clearly 
under the influence of these great masters. Even 
more curious is the series of reliefs representing the 
planets. Diana, holding a crescent, is mounted on a 
triumphal car drawn by two horses ; Mars, as a 
warrior, with drawn sword and brandished shield, 
stands on a chariot armed with scythes ; Venus rises 
from the waves, drawn by swans who walk upon the 
waters, while a flock of doves hover over her head. 
Another series which sets forth the signs of the zodiac 
is less interesting, as its representations are more real- 
istic, and suggest a collection of strange animals. 
Thus, a goat browses on a hill-side ; a huge crab is 
suspended in the heavens, while underneath is a 
representation of the sea with Rimini on its shore. 
Sibyls and Old Testament heroes also occur, but 
these are more ordinary subjects. Suddenly, how- 



A MAN OF CULTURE 149 

ever, we come upon a chapel which is adorned with 
designs of the games of childhood. Little amorini^ 
full of the mischievous joy of infancy, sport amidst the 
waters, chase ducks, ride on shells, or are mounted on 
the backs of dolphins ; or they dance merrily round 
a fountain, conduct their leader in a mimic triumph, 
and even ride a-cock-horse, and play at horses. The 
next chapel rises suddenly to most serious allegory, 
and represents the works of man. It is the later 
counterpart of Giotto's large conceptions round the 
base of his campanile, or the more sombre allegories 
that run inside the doorway of St. Mark's at Venice. 
Symbolism has become more complicated, more 
learned, more pedantic. Giotto frankly represented 
man at his labour, whatever it might be. Here, on 
the other hand, we have impersonations. Agriculture 
is a woman gazing on the face of the sky, and holding 
fruits in one hand, while with the other she scatters 
seed upon the earth ; Education is a stately dame 
with a staff thrown over her stalwart shoulder, and 
looking down upon a group of boys and girls who run 
to clasp the hem of her garment ; Music is a maiden 
with rapt face and timid awe-stricken mien, who opens 
her lips in song, and holds in her hands a guitar. 

For the student of Italian art all this work is full of 
the deepest significance. It gives a new sense of the 
richness and fertility of the age in which it was done. 
The records relating to it have all perished ; and critics 
once wished to assign the sculptures to the great Italian 
masters, Luca della Robbia, Donatello, and the like. 
M. Yriarte has gone far to prove conclusively that 
they were the work of much smaller men — Simone 



150 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Ferucci, Agostino di Duccio, Bernardo Cuiffagni. But 
all owed something to the presence of Albert! ; and 
their^ work was directed by Gismondo himself, and 
supervised by his chief minister of art, Matteo da Pasti, 
whose fame survives as a medallist. All Italy was full 
of artists. A fitting opportunity alone was needed for 
congenial work, and the work was sure to be exquisitely 
wrought. The fiery nature of Gismondo found ready 
instruments to accomplish what he wished ; his desires 
were so exactly in accordance with the artistic spirit 
of his time that they were executed with precision and 
with force. The temple of the Malatesta remains what 
Gismondo meant it to be, a memorial of himself, of his 
life, his character, his ideas, and his love. The only 
thing inside the church that rises to another level is a 
fresco by Piero della Francesca, representing Gismondo 
kneeling before his patron saint, St. Sigismund. It 
is painted above the door of the Chapel of the Relics, 
and in its simplicity and strength leads back our minds 
from the multitudinous details of the decorative work 
to the grand fagade of Alberti. 

The church was not finished outside, and the decora- 
tion of the choir was never begun, for things at last 
went very badly for Gismondo. His unscrupulousness 
made him a vast body of enemies, and Pope Pius II. 
in the end was much too strong for him. He was 
defeated by overwhelming superiority of numbers, 
and was deprived of most of his dominions. His 
unquiet spirit found some occupation after his down- 
fall in fighting against the Turks in Greece, where he 
died at the age of fifty-one. With him the glory of 
Rimini departed. 



151 



A LEARNED LADY OF THE SIXTEENTH 

CENTURY. 

Those who are interested in the study of human 
character must always linger over the records of the 
sixteenth century, must always feel an irresistible 
attraction in the lives of those who first had the 
problem set before them of the reconciliation of the 
contending claims of the conscience and the intellect. 
The intellectual movement of the Renaissance revived 
the buried culture of antiquity, and created a desire for 
clearly defined personality which, as it grew, tended to 
regard morality as an obstacle to free self-development. 
Against this the Reformation movement asserted the 
dignity of the individual conscience, and in the interest 
of the sincerity of the religious life limited the sphere of 
free inquiry, and fettered the childlike curiosity which 
had been the charm and the power of the Renaissance. 
The few who attempted to co-ordinate these two im- 
pulses will always be marked characters in the history 
of thought. More, Erasmus, and Hutten will always 
be objects of curiosity and interest. But many who 
occupied no prominent position, and who left no lasting 
results behind them, are equally deserving of attention. 
Those especially who, in Italy, were deeply penetrated 
with culture, yet felt the piercing power of the new 
religious impulse, have been too generally disregarded. 



152 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

The absorbing interest of the great religious conflict 
of the sixteenth century has drawn all eyes upon the 
battle in which such mighty interests were at stake. 
When Europe was marshalled into two great camps, 
and the aspirations of national life ranged themselves 
on either side, those who looked upon the problem as 
an individual problem, and sought to reconcile for 
themselves the antagonism which they felt, were dis- 
regarded at the time and have since been neglected. 
Yet it is worth while to recall, where it is possible, 
these forgotten lives, discover the spirit which they 
breathe, and listen to these voices crying in the wilder- 
ness, where their accents were scattered by the unheed- 
ing winds. 

Such a one was Olympia Fulvia Morata, who was 
born at Ferrara in 1528, whose life we purpose to trace 
from her letters, and leave it to speak its own lesson. 

No city tells so distinctly the story of the rise of an 
Italian princely family as does Ferrara, which lies about 
forty miles south of Venice, not far from the coast of 
the Adriatic Sea. Though still an important city, it 
is sorely shrunk from its ancient grandeur, and the 
grass grows thick in its broad and deserted streets. 
We soon see the reason for the breadth and straight- 
ness of the principal streets, for all converge towards 
a huge fortress that rises threatening and majestic in 
the city's centre. It is a colossal red-brick building 
in Gothic style, with four massive towers at the four 
corners, walls of vast thickness, balconies high up on 
every side, and small windows — a place meant for 
defence against every foe. Round it is a deep moat, 
across which the entrance in old days was by a draw- 



A LEARNED LADY 153 

bridge. It was the castle of the lords of Este, who 
made themselves masters of Ferrara, and left this 
substantial token ot the way they held it. No chance 
for the citizens to make a commotion ; from every 
side the castle could pour forth its soldiers, who would 
scour the streets. No chance of plotting in secret ; 
the castle seemed a spy set over the whole city. No 
hopes of seizing it by surprise ; its moat and draw- 
bridge on all four sides made it too secure. No hopes 
of reducing it by siege ; its spacious courtyards were 
well supplied with stores, and gave ample room for 
every kind of sport. From their mighty castle the 
lords of Este kept the Ferrarese in subjection, and 
ruled them with a magnificent and generous rule. 

The ruling families which made themselves masters 
of the Italian cities might have many political faults, 
but they were always representative of the aspirations 
of the citizens whom they ruled. They kept down all 
patriotic sentiment which had its root in the municipal 
traditions of the past, but they were at one with their 
subjects in the desire for the glory of their city in the 
present. When the New Learning arose in Italy, and 
men returned to the study of classical antiquity, the 
whole life of the Italians became absorbed in the pur- 
suit. Universities teemed with scholars, and every city 
was anxious that it should number amongst its citizens 
artists and men of learning who might spread the 
influence and increase the glory of their city. But the 
Italian universities had their roots in the feeling of 
municipal freedom, and under the baneful patronage 
of princes, the art and learning of Italy put forth 
its dying splendour while it lost its vital principle. 



154 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Universities flourished, and scholars increased ; but 
the universities lost their hold upon the popular life, 
and the scholars wrote elegant nothings, and ceased to 
be leaders of their fellow-men. 

Among the cities where art and literature were 
munificently encouraged, Ferrara, under its Este lords, 
might claim a chief place. In the beginning of the six- 
teenth century the court of Duke Alfonso was gay and 
brilliant. Dosso Dossi, Bellini, and Titian were all 
employed to paint him pictures, and it was a current 
saying, " Ferrara has as many poets as its country has 
frogs ". Chiefest amongst those was Ludovico Ariosto, 
whose Orlando Furioso remains the most perfect satire 
on the downfall of the Middle Ages, the most splendid 
interpretation of the inquiring, polished, humorous spirit 
of the new age which had arisen in its stead. The 
beliefs and sentiments of the Middle Ages melted away 
when touched by the poet's magic wand amid a burst 
of inextinguishable laughter ; the monstrous, deformed, 
inhuman Caliban of the past disappeared before the 
gentle, sprightly Ariel of the present. But Ariosto 
pointed to the glories of a future which Italy was not 
to possess. He died in 1533, ^^<^ Duke Alfonso in the 
following year. It was not long before a new spirit 
took possession of Ferrara — the spirit of theology, 
which Ariosto, when he wrote, had imagined for ever 
laid to rest. 

Duke Alfonso was succeeded by his son, Ercole II., 
who had married Renee of France, daughter of King 
Louis XII. and Anne of Brittany. Renee had been 
brought up in the French court with her cousin Mar- 
garet, who became Queen of Navarre, and the two girls 



A LEARNED LADY 155 

had together become imbued with the new religious 
spirit that was seething in Northern Europe. At first 
it was doubtful how far the new spirit might prevail, 
either in the Roman Church or in the affairs of each 
national Church, and Renee and Margaret had no 
feeling of rebellion against existing authority in the re- 
ligious speculations in which they indulged in common. 
When Renee went to Ferrara in 1527, she carried her 
new opinions with her ; but the spirit of Italian culture 
was much too tolerant to heed what opinions any one 
chose to entertain. Renee was skilled in philosophy, 
geometry, astronomy, and was fond of learned men. 
She gathered round her many of the new school of 
religious thought. When the spirit of repression rose 
in France and drove many French theologians to quit 
their native land, they took refuge for a time at Ferrara. 
There came the first poet of modern France, Clement 
Marot ; there for a time came Calvin before he settled 
in Geneva, and till his death he continued in corre- 
spondence with Duchess Renee ; there came Languet, 
the historian. Moreover from various parts of Italy 
the new theologians gathered round Renee's court, M. 
A, Flaminio, Aonio Paleario, Peter Martyr Vermigli, 
Celio Calcagnini, and Celio Curione. 

The new opinions gained adherents in Ferrara, 
amongst others a .professor in the university, Pel- 
legrino Morato. Morato was a native of Mantua, who 
had been summoned to Ferrara by Duke Alfonso to 
act as tutor to his younger sons, and had afterwards 
stayed as professor of classical literature in the uni- 
versity. In Ferrara he married a wife, and for a while 
basked in the full enjoyment of princely patronage. 



156 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

But it would seem that he ventured to write a book 
which entered with too much boldness into theological 
controversy. Duke Ercole II. did not wish to have 
the reputation of fostering heretics ; if people chose to 
hold their tongues in public they might hold what 
opinions they liked ; but he could not have his 
professors bringing him into disrepute. Morato 
was ordered to leave Ferrara, and taught at Venice, 
Vicenza, Cesena, and perhaps at other places. But 
his friends in Ferrara did not forget him. One of 
his brother professors, who also agreed with him on 
questions of theology, Celio Calcagnini, when time had 
done away the effects of his rashness, and the hostility 
against him had subsided, prevailed on the Duke to 
recall him to Ferrara in 1539. 

Morato was soon restored to high favour at the 
court, and when in 1540 Duchess Renee wanted a girl 
to share the studies of her eldest daughter Anna, his 
daughter Olympia was chosen for that purpose. 

So at the age of twelve Olympia Morata left her 
home for the court of Ferrara. She was two years 
older than Anna of Este, whose companion she was 
to be. She had been carefully instructed in all the 
learning of the age, had gained a considerable know- 
ledge of Greek and Latin literature, and was seriously 
engaged in the study of rhetoric, or the art of public 
speaking. How carefully she was educated we see 
from a letter of her father on the subject of pronuncia- 
tion, addressed to her at this time. In our day we 
should consider this question as a very trivial one, and 
if a teacher were to urge it seriously upon scholars he 
would probably fail in awaking any enthusiasm. But 



A LEARNED LADY 157 

in Italy artistic feeling prevailed on every point. The 
object of education was to enable every one to make 
the best of themselves. The importance for this 
purpose of manner, of voice, of mode of speaking, of 
turn of expression was keenly felt by all. Pellegrino 
Morato was doing nothing pedantic or affected when 
he wrote as follows to his daughter : — 

" Pronunciation rather than action is the important 
point in speaking. The speaker ought to use his lips 
as the reins of his voice, by which he raises and drops 
it in turn ; he ought to adorn each word before it leaves 
his palate. But he ought not to do this inelegantly 
by distorting his lips, puffing out his cheeks, or looking 
as if he were cracking nuts with his teeth. A lady, 
before she leaves her chamber, consults her mirror for 
her expression. The voice ought to do likewise. If 
it is rough or too sonorous the lips and teeth should be 
used as barriers to check it ; if it is too thin the cheeks 
should be used to give it animation ; if it is too shrill 
the lips should be drawn together to give it volume, 
so that the long words be not tripped up by the too 
delicate palate. Strive that your speech be made 
pleasant in the speaking. The seductive power of 
the Goddess of Persuasion, the suavity of Pericles, 
the bees on the lips of Plato, the chains of Hercules, 
the lyres of Orpheus and Amphion, the sweetness of 
Nestor, nay, the grace of Christ Himself was nothing 
else than a sweet, soothing, cheerful, soft speech, not 
affected nor elaborate, but beautifully, delicately, and 
subtly harmonised. The greatest orator will change 
the sound not only in every sentence according to its 
sense, but in every word. I for my part would rather 



158 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

hold my tongue than speak harshly, inarticulately, or 
unpleasantly." 

Such are some of the maxims contained in a long 
letter which deals in detail with many practical points 
of pronunciation. It is full of references to classical 
authorities, and shows none of that condescension to an 
inferior intelligence which we should expect to find in a 
letter addressed to a child of twelve. That it was not 
the outpouring of a pedant we know from the statement 
with which it begins, that it was written at Olympia's 
special request, in answer to her own questions. Her 
father begins by saying that it was a difficult subject, 
" Yet I write because I neither can nor ought to deny 
you anything, seeing that you are my daughter, and 
are anxious not only to speak artistically, but to 
express your speech gracefully". 

At the court of Ferrara Olympia Morata began her 
higher studies by attending the clailses of the professors 
at the university, her own father, Celio Calcagnini, and 
especially two Germans, Chilianus and John Sinapius, 
who were doctors of medicine, but taught literature. 
To Chilianus Sinapius Olympia felt that she owed 
much, and like all who are really in earnest with know- 
ledge, she expressed to him her deep sense of gratitude. 
" To my father," she says, " I owe the beginning of life ; 
to you, my teacher, the beginning of living well. From 
you I learned to count as nothing the things which are 
commonly reckoned good, but looking up to virtue to 
reckon it as the one peculiar good of the soul which 
can never be lost." Under the teaching of Chilianus, 
Olympia rapidly advanced in her knowledge of Greek, 
and devoted herself to the study of Cicero. At the age 



A LEARNED LADY 159 

of fourteen she wrote Latin letters, translated several 
of Boccaccio's stories into Latin, wrote observations on 
Homer, and several rhetorical compositions in praise 
of celebrated men of old times. She then turned her 
attention to the higher branches of learning, philosophy, 
and theology, and wrote dialogues in Greek and Latin 
in the style of Plato and Cicero, dealing with philo- 
sophical and theological subjects. She was scarcely 
sixteen years old when she was requested to give lectures 
in the University of Ferrara, in which she commented 
on the Paradoxes of Cicero, and discussed the philo- 
sophical problems which that book contains. There 
was nothing extraordinary in a lady lecturing in Italy 
at that day. There was no notion of rivalry between 
the sexes, any more than between classes in the State. 
All were at liberty to do their best, and they had an 
audience sufficiently critical to take whatever was said 
at its real worth. Olympia's real knowledge and 
gracefulness in speaking won for her lectures both 
respect and attention. She might long have taught at 
Ferrara if religious difficulties had not again arisen. 

While Olympia Morata had been quietly educating 
herself at Ferrara, the great religious conflict had been 
more and more agitating Europe ; the gulf between 
the opposite parties of Catholics and Protestants had 
been widening, and the political issues of the religious 
controversy had become more clearly marked. The 
Papacy had been forced to quit the attitude of easy 
tolerance which, under the impulse of the New Learn- 
ing, it had so long assumed, and the Inquisition was 
again set in motion to purge Italy of heretics. France 
also had become decidedly and pronouncedly Catholic, 



i6o HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

and the Pope and King of France alike looked with 
suspicion on the court of Ferrara and the freedom of 
opinion which was there encouraged or tolerated by 
the Duchess. Accordingly her nephew, the French 
king, joined with the Pope in urging the Duke of Fer- 
rara to look more closely after the orthodoxy of his 
wife, and to purge his court from heretics. Ercole II. 
did not wish to have the reputation of favouring heresy, 
which would be a hindrance to his political projects. 
He therefore restrained his wife's liberty, took the 
education of his children into his own hands, made 
many changes in his court, and ordered inquisition to 
be made into the Lutherans at Ferrara. Olympia was 
driven from the court, was looked upon with great 
suspicion from her openness of speech, and was aban- 
doned even by her patron, the Duchess Renee, who 
thought it wise to bow before the storm. Olympia, 
at the age of nineteen, was suddenly deprived of the 
luxuries and of the leisure which a court life had secured 
her, and lived in poverty with her father, who was also 
deprived of his endowments, and was in failing health. 
For some months she had to nurse him in his last ill- 
ness, harassed by the feeling of living in an atmosphere 
of perpetual suspicion, so that she dared not even be 
seen reading her Bible. Her father died within a year, 
and left Olympia, who was not yet twenty, to take care 
of an invalid mother and look after the education of 
three sisters and a brother, who were all younger than 
herself. 

It was a hard situation for a girl of Olympia's age. 
She was abandoned by every one, reduced to poverty, 
harassed by the feeling that all her actions were spied, 



A LEARNED LADY i6i 

and that an imprudence on her part would bring down 
punishment not only on herself, but on her helpless 
mother and sisters. She had come to this all at once, 
from living in the luxury of a court, being petted by 
princes and princesses, and having a crowd of listeners 
to her lectures on philosophy. But she had not been 
effeminated by her courtly life, nor had her practical 
capacity been weakened by her learning. Knowledge 
had only given her a keener insight into the things 
needful for life. Culture had only brought her that 
true refinement of soul which has its riches in itself 
and is independent of outward things. Knowledge 
and culture in her case only gave greater fulness of 
meaning to a deep religious feeling. " I do not regret," 
she writes, " the short-lived fugitive pleasures which I 
have lost. God has kindled in me a desire to dwell in 
that heavenly home in which it is more pleasant to 
abide for one day than a thousand years in the courts 
of princes." 

Olympia did not suffer the miseries of this position 
more than two years. A young German doctor who 
was studying medicine at Ferrara, Andrea Grunthler, 
loved her in spite of her poverty. As she says, '* He 
was not deterred either by the hatred of the Duke or 
by my misery from marrying me". He was a man of 
good birth, of considerable attainments, and was pos- 
sessed of sufficient private property to maintain a wife. 
"If I had continued in the Duke's favour," says Olym- 
pia, " if he had given me wealth, he could not have 
placed me in a better position than that in which, poor 
and bereft of all, I have been placed by God." The 

young couple were glad to leave Ferrara, and Grunthler 

II 



i62 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

went soon after his marriage to arrange for a home in 
Germany. 

It might be thought that such an educated lady as 
Olympia was superior to anything so commonplace as 
falling deeply in love ; but the following extracts from 
one of her letters to her husband during his absence 
will prove the contrary : — 

"I greatly grieve that you are away from me, and 
will be away so long ; for nothing more grievous or 
more painful could befal me. I am always afraid lest 
some mishap or illness should overtake you. I know 
my fears outstrip the reality ; but, as the poet says — 

" Love is full of anxious fear. 

Let me know, I beseech you, how you fare, for I swear 
that nothing could be dearer or more delightful than 
you, and I know that you know it. I wish, dear hus- 
band, that you were with me, so that I could show you 
more clearly how great is my love for you. You would 
not believe me if I were to tell you how I long for 
you ; nothing is so hard or difficult that I would not 
willingly do it to give you pleasure, yet I could bear 
anything for your sake more easily than your absence. 
I beseech you to strive with all your might that this 
summer we may be together in your home. If you 
love me as I do you, I know that you will manage it. 
But, not to trouble you, I will say no more, nor did I 
touch the subject to reproach you, but only to admonish 
you of your duty, although I know that you are as 
anxious as myself." 

Olympia did not long pine in her husband's absence. 
Her old tutor, John Sinapius, who had returned to 



A LEARNED LADY 163 

Germany as a physician, recommended Grunthler to 
Ferdinand of Austria. One of the King's counsellors, 
George Herman of Guttenberg, welcomed Grunthler 
and his wife on their arrival in Germany early in 1550. 
Herman himself had need of medical advice, and they 
stayed some time with him near Augsburg. When he 
was cured, they settled in Augsburg. Olympia left 
her mother and sisters in Ferrara, but brought with 
her her brother, of the age of eight, that she might 
relieve her family by taking charge of his education. 
Grunthler refused a lucrative post at Linz, which 
Herman offered him from Ferdinand of Austria ; for he 
did not choose to go to any city where he could not 
openly express his religious convictions. In 1 557 they 
removed to Schweinfurt, Grunthler's native place, then 
an important city lying between Wiirzburg and Coburg. 
Here Olympia enjoyed a little rest, and set herself to 
the work of turning the Psalms of David into Greek 
verse. She also wrote several Latin dialogues dealing 
with moral and religious questions. " If you ask what 
I am doing," she writes, " I bury myself in literature, 
and often spend the whole day in reading ; for there 
is no greater solace that I can find. My husband also 
is busy with his studies." Indeed Olympia was sorely 
to be pitied. Germany was a strange land, whose 
language she knew very imperfectly. Everything 
must have been strange and rude and primitive to a 
cultivated Italian lady. She had no literary society, 
few of the refinements or graces of life around her. 
Compared with the princely splendour of Ferrara, 
Schweinfurt must have seemed a semi-barbarous 
place. 



1 64 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Yet amid these uncongenial surroundings Olympia 
did not shut herself up in herself or her own pursuits, 
but was eager to help others. She writes to a young 
man, a pupil of her husband's, to comfort him amid 
the political disturbances of the time, which he was 
afraid might interrupt his studies. Listen to her wise 
advice, which all students might well lay to heart : — 

" Do not trouble yourself too much for fear lest these 
sad times interrupt your studies : you will not lose 
much by that, for there is as much good in securing 
what you have acquired as in acquiring something new. 
Even if you go to war, you can find time to read some 
one book without a teacher ; for everything cannot be 
got from teachers, they can only point the way to the 
fountains. I advise you, therefore, to read some one 
book, to read it again and again, and weigh its mean- 
ing, for it is better to know one thing well than many 
things moderately." 

She bestirred herself also to have some of Luther's 
writings translated into Italian, and deplored her own 
ignorance of German, which prevented her from doing 
such a work herself. Moreover, her heart was moved 
within her at the behaviour of a German preacher in 
Schweinfurt, who, in spite of his office, did not always 
observe the rule of temperance. She writes to him : — 

" I have often wished for an opportunity of talking 
with you, but as I have never been able to find one, I 
determined to tell you in a letter what I wished to say 
face to face ; for the precept of Christ, which all ought 
to obey, does not suffer me any longer to delay. Since 
I find that you ofttimes act amiss I am driven to 
admonish you, if I would obey Christ. You ought, 



A LEARNED LADY 165 

therefore, if you consider rightly, in no way to be angry 
with me for thinking that you ought to be admonished 
for your excessive self-indulgence, which is opposed 
both to your ministerial office and to your grey hairs. 
Even men who make no professions of religion agree 
that intemperance is disgraceful to an educated man ; 
more disgraceful to a Christian, whose purity of life 
ought to lead others to God ; most disgraceful to a 
minister who shows others the way and does not 
follow it himself." 

It is sufficiently remarkable that a lady not yet 
twenty-five years old should have felt herself called 
upon to write on such a subject to an old man ; still 
more remarkable that she should have done it with 
such simplicity and tact. The letter is a proof that 
only the wise can be genuinely simple. 

The tranquillity of Olympia's life was soon to come 
to an end, and the fruits of her labours were ruthlessly 
destroyed. The religious question had convulsed Ger- 
many. Catholic and Protestant states watched one 
another with growing hostility. The Emperor Charles 
V. waited his time, and at last struck a blow against 
the Protestants which he hoped would be decisive. 
But the French king, in spite of his Catholicism, did 
not wish that there should be a powerful ruler over a 
united Germany ; the German princes were afraid lest, 
after his success, Charles V.'s hand should weigh too 
heavily upon them. Charles V. was forced to give way 
before an alliance between France and his turbulent 
vassals in Germany. Then confusion grew greater as 
adventurous spirits pressed on to see what sport could 
be gained by fishing in troubled waters. Amongst 



1 66 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

others who were wishing to try their fortunes, the erratic 
Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg wished to better 
himself at the expense of the prince bishops of Wlirz- 
burg and Bamberg. In 1553 he entered Franconia 
and stationed in Schweinfurt part of his troops, who 
inflicted on the citizens all the miseries of military 
licence and exacted from them large contributions in 
money. Moreover Albert's foes besieged his army in 
Schweinfurt, and the luckless citizens, after being pil- 
laged by their unwelcome guests, had to undergo all 
the horrors of a siege. Their provisions were at a low 
ebb, and the crowding within the city walls of the 
soldiers in addition to the citizens soon produced a 
plague ; half the citizens died, many more went mad 
with horror. Grunthler was stricken with plague, and 
nothing could be done for him, as all the medicine in 
the city was long since exhausted ; but Olympia's care- 
ful nursing managed to rescue him almost miraculously 
from the very jaws of death. 

He was scarcely restored to health before the besieg- 
ing troops were reinforced and the siege was actively 
pressed ; day and night bombs were hurled into the 
city, and for days Olympia and her husband were 
driven to hide for safety in their wine-cellar. At last 
Albert saw that he could hold out no longer ; he took 
advantage of the darkness of night to elude the 
besiegers and march with his forces out of Schweinfurt. 
But the army of defence was as lawless as the army 
of invasion, and was anxious only for booty. The 
luckless citizens of Schweinfurt were punished for 
having had an army quartered on them so long, and 
their city was given up to pillage. The brutal soldiers 



A LEARNED LADY 167 

rushed in and set it on fire. Olympia and her husband 
received a warning to flee if they wished to escape 
being burned to death. Penniless they fled, but even 
so were stopped and stripped of their clothes: Olympia 
made her escape clad only in her linen smock. Ex- 
hausted with hunger and terror, Olympia and her 
husband managed to drag themselves fifteen miles, to 
the little town of Hamelburg. The burghers were 
afraid to admit them within their walls, but at length 
Olympia was allowed to enter, looking, as she says, 
like a queen of beggars, barefoot, with dishevelled hair, 
clad in some rags which she had borrowed on the way. 
Fatigue and excitement brought on a low fever, but 
in spite of her illness the folks of Hamelburg were too 
afraid to allow her to stay more than four days. At 
the next town which they reached Grunthler was 
imprisoned by an officer of the Bishop of Wiirzburg, 
who said that he had orders to kill all refugees from 
Schweinfurt. Luckily he was prevailed upon to wait a 
few days till application could be made to the Bishop, 
who ordered Grunthler's release. They managed to 
crawl away to Rineck, where the Count received them 
kindly and sent them on to the Count of Erbach, who 
was a Protestant. He and his wife did what they 
could to repair their losses, and by his influence 
obtained for Grunthler a post in the University of 
Heidelberg. 

There Olympia settled in the middle of 1554. She 
had indeed been driven from place to place since she 
quitted her native land. All her books and papers 
had been destroyed at Schweinfurt, except a very few, 
which a friend afterwards bought back from a soldier 



1 68 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

who happened to have carried them away. She and 
her husband had no money except what was given by 
the kindness of friends, and they had to practise rigid 
economy. Even so Olympia's kindliness made her 
seek for a refugee from Schweinfurt as a servant, that 
she might be useful to some one who had suffered the 
same miseries as herself Her learning had not made 
her neglect the duties of a good housewife ; her letters 
about servants and expenses show the utmost careful- 
ness and capacity for household management. 

Olympia's health had greatly suffered from her 
privations, and she was for some time incapable of 
much exertion. Yet she renewed her intercourse with 
men of letters, resumed her studies, and tried as she was 
able to replace her writings which had been destroyed 
at Schweinfurt. She also strove to form another 
library — a difficult undertaking in those days, when 
books were luxuries. It is pleasant to find that in 
this she was aided by the liberality of the great Basel 
printers, foremost among whom were Froben and 
Izingrin, who joined together to send her a handsome 
present of books. She went on with the education of 
her brother, and also took the daughter of her old 
teacher, John Sinapius, to be educated in her house. 

But rest and peace were not long to be Olympia's 
portion. Again misfortune overtook her and her 
husband. A plague broke out in Heidelberg, and the 
majority of the students and inhabitants fled from the 
city. Grunthler could not afford to go, and Olympia 
again had to endure a time of misery. Luckily they 
escaped the plague, but Olympia's fever returned with 
such violence that her strength was entirely exhausted 



A LEARNED LADY 169 

and death came daily nearer to her. A few days before 
her death she wrote to her old friend Celio Curione, 
who was himself recovering from a serious illness ; — 

" How tender-hearted are they who are joined 
together in true Christian friendship, dear Celio, you 
may judge when I tell you that your letter moved me 
to tears. For when I read that you had been saved 
almost from the jaws of death I wept for joy. For I 
see how God protects you that you may long be able 
to serve His Church. As to myself, dear Celio, know 
that I have lost all hope of longer life. I have tried 
all that medicine can do without avail. Daily, even 
hourly, my friends expect nothing but my departure, 
and I think this will be the last letter you will receive 
from me. My body and my strength are both ex- 
hausted ; I have no relish for food ; day and night 
phlegm threatens to suffocate me. The fever is raging 
and incessant ; pains in my whole body deprive me of 
sleep. Nothing is left for me but to breathe out my 
soul. But I still have a spirit within me which is 
mindful of all my friends and all their kindness. So 
I wished to thank you for your books, and to thank 
most warmly all those good men who sent me so many 
beautiful presents. I think that I shall soon die : I 
commend to your care the Church, that whatever you 
do may be for her profit. Farewell, most excellent 
Celio, and when you hear the news of my death do 
not grieve, for I know that my life will only begin 
after death, and 1 wish to be dissolved and be with 
Christ." 

This letter did not reach its destination till Olympia 
was in her grave. It was enclosed to Curione by her 



lyo HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

widowed husband, who gives the following description 
of her death : — 

" When she was almost dying, waking a little out of 
sleep, I saw her look pleased and smile softly. I went 
nearer and asked why she smiled so sweetly. ' I saw 
just now,' she said, ' a quiet place filled with the fairest 
and clearest light.' When she could speak no more 
through weakness, ' Courage,' I said, * dear wife ; in 
that fair light you will dwell '. Again she smiled and 
nodded her head. A little while afterwards she said, 
* I am quite happy '. When next she spoke her eyes 
were already dim. ' I can scarcely see you any longer,' 
she said, ' but everything seems to me full of the most 
beautiful flowers.' They were her last words. Soon 
after, as if overcome by sweet sleep, she breathed forth 
her soul. For many days she had repeated that she 
wished for nothing but to be dissolved and be with 
Christ, whose great mercies towards herself she never 
ceased to speak of when the disease allowed, saying 
that He had illumined her with the knowledge of His 
word, had weaned her mind from the pleasures of this 
world, had kindled in her the longing for eternal life ; 
nor did she hesitate in all she said to call herself 
a child of God. She bore nothing worse than if any 
one, for the sake of consoling her, said that she would 
recover from her illness. For she said that God had 
allotted her a short term of life, but full of labour and 
sorrow, and she did not wish again to return from the 
goal to the starting-point. She was asked by a pious 
man if she had anything on her mind that troubled 
her. ' For all these seven years,' she said, ' the devil 
has never ceased to try by all means to draw me from 



A LEARNED LADY 171 

the faith ; but now, as though he had shot all his darts, 
he nowhere appears. I feel nothing else in my mind 
except entire quiet and the peace of Christ' It would 
be long to tell you all that she said, to the admiration 
of us who heard her. She died on 26th October, 1555, 
at four o'clock in the afternoon, in the twenty-ninth 
year of her age and the fifth year of her married life." 

Such scraps of her literary remains as could be 
found were edited by her friend Celio Curione, and 
were published at Basel in 1562. They were charac- 
teristically dedicated to Queen Elizabeth of England, 
as being the most learned lady of her age. 

In literature Olympia Morata is little more than a 
name. Yet the record of her simple life of self-devotion 
to the cause of truth and intellectual freedom is more 
precious than a library full of her writings. In her 
intellectual character we can clearly see the meeting 
of the two great movements that produce modern 
thought — the Renaissance and the Reformation. To 
the culture which came from the study of classical 
antiquity she added the seriousness and sincerity of the 
new religious life. She showed an example — rare in 
any age, most rare in the age in which she lived — of a 
religion that was free from fanaticism, from affectation, 
from intolerance, from desire for controversy. Culture 
gave her genuineness and breadth of view, depth of 
insight to distinguish what was real from what was 
seeming, strengthened her to turn her convictions into 
the stuff of which her life was built. Listen to her 
words on the weary disputations with which her time 
was vexed : " About the sacraments I know that there 



.172 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

is amongst Christians a great controversy, which would 
easily have been settled long ago if men had taken as 
their counsellor, not their own vanity, but Christ's 
glory and the good of His Church, which is advanced 
by concord ". 

But the spirit of freedom, of sincerity, of sim- 
plicity, of broad-mindedness, of culture, which ani- 
mated Olympia had no place in the turbulent times 
in which her lot was cast. Her fate in life was a 
symbol of the fate that befel the spirit which she 
expressed. Driven out of Italy, where free inquiry was 
checked by stern repression exercised in the name of 
orthodoxy, it could find no abiding-place beyond the 
Alps. The bitterness of polemics, the anarchy of self- 
seeking licence, the turbulence of struggles in which 
politics and religion were strangely interwoven — all 
these causes combined to trample down the " sweet 
reasonableness " of Christian culture. The savage- 
ness of the religious conflict of the sixteenth century 
destroyed the spirit of free inquiry in the Renais- 
sance, and narrowed the Reformation into dogmatical 
polemics. 



173 



JOHN WICLIF.i 

The increasing attention that has of late years been 
paid to Wiclif and his writings is a most hopeful sign 
of a genuine desire to understand more fully the Refor- 
mation movement, and obtain a clearer idea of its real 
meaning and importance. The Reformation summed 
up and expressed so many different impulses and so 
many different aims, that the first object of an inquirer 
into its history must be to separate its various parts, and 
consider them, so far as is possible, in their separate 
spheres, before he can hope to represent them collectively 
in their full significance. Hence the importance of the 
special study of the English Reformation, which was a 
natural consequence of the previous national history, and 
was determined in its character and extent by political 
and national, rather than by speculative and universal 
considerations : in consequence, though it might be 
illogical, it was self-developed, and was free from the 
influences of violent antagonisms and forcible reactions. / 

If this is true of England generally, as contrasted 
with the Continent, it is especially true of Wiclif in his 
relation to the Reformation movement in England 
itself He was entirely unaffected by any external 
influences, by any theories of the Waldenses, or other 
mystics ; he was not urged on by personal motives, nor 
by the pressure of strong political necessities ; he was 

^A Review of jfohann von Wiclif, von Gotthard Lechler, 1873. 



174 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

no mere dreamer, but a man profoundly versed in all 
the learning of his time ; " in theology most eminent, 
in philosophy second to none, in scholastic exercises 
incomparable " : he was led to his opinions solely by 
his own mental development, and was maintained in 
them by the national feeling of England ; he spoke 
simply as he thought, and met with no opposition 
sufficiently strong to deter him or compel him to throw 
his opinions into a purely defensive form. Wiclif is 
pre-eminently the embodiment of strong common 
sense, great earnestness and integrity of purpose, clear 
insight and unswerving honesty in the expression of 
what he held to be true. In this lies the importance 
of his life and opinions to the historical and to the 
theological student, who is desirous of discovering the 
real meaning of the Reformation, and is not merely 
anxious to find in it a confirmation of his own opinions. 
To the sectary and to the disputant, Wiclif is still 
merely a name, or is known only by a few passages of 
his invective, and is confused with the general mass of 
those who strove against the Pope and identified him 
with Antichrist. Recently, however, greater interest has 
been felt in Wiclif and as a consequence more accurate 
knowledge has been obtained, and his works have for 
the first time been made public. Especially have the 
labours of the late Dr. Shirley contributed to this re- 
sult : his edition of the Fasciculi Zizaniorufyiy a polemic 
against Lollardism, attributed to Thomas Netter, of 
Walden, contains most valuable criticism on Wiclif 
and his teaching. Moreover, Dr. Shirley was deeply 
impressed with the desirability of making the works 
of Wiclif more widely known ; he devoted much valu- 



JOHN WICLIF 175 

able labour to a critical examination of the immense 
mass of manuscripts existing in the public libraries of 
Europe which were attributed to Wiclif; and, as a 
result of this examination, he published a Catalogue 
of Wiclifs writings, which might serve as a basis for 
further research. He also prevailed on the delegates 
of the University Press at Oxford to undertake the 
publication of some of the writings of one of the great- 
est sons of that university, one who expresses the 
noblest period of her intellectual supremacy, and shows 
her in her grandest aspect as a genuine seeker after 
truth, — one in whose mouth the learning of the Middle 
Ages still rings with the deepest significance for the 
ear of modern times. Hence Dr. Lechler edited for 
the university, from a collation of four Vienna MSS., 
Wiclifs Trialogus} the most learned of his works, and 
the one which gives us the greatest insight into the 
speculative ideas on which his teaching was founded ; 
and more recently, Mr. Thomas Arnold has edited with 
conscientious care a selection from Wiclifs more popu- 
lar and practical writings in English,^ consisting of his 
sermons and a number of his shorter treatises. 

The results, therefore, of this fuller knowledge and 
more accurate investigation. Dr. Lechler puts before 
us in two bulky volumes, which deal with the subject 
in a most comprehensive way. 

But though Dr. Lechler has exhibited Wiclifs 
teaching more fully, more accurately and more syste- 
matically than had been done before, he has failed to 
grasp the whole significance of the period in which 

^yohannis Wiclif Trialogus. Edidit G. Lechler. Oxonii, 1869. 
2 Select English Works of John Wiclif. Edited by T. Arnold, 
M.A., three vols,, Oxford, 1869-71. 



176 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Wiclif lived, or to bring out in full relief the greatness 
of his position in our national history. 

Wiclif has suffered so much from being regarded 
purely as a Reformer, and his position in relation to 
English history and English thought has been so much 
misstated, that it is perhaps still worth while to attempt 
to sketch its significance, in its more general bearing. 

Born near the little village of Spreswell,^ near Rich- 
mond, in Yorkshire, about the year 1324, Wiclif went at 
an early age to Oxford, with which his fame and his 
teaching were ever afterwards associated. Oxford 
cannot have been in a very flourishing condition dur- 
ing his student years : the Black Death was desolating 
England, and before its ravages the number of scholars 
had greatly diminished, and other thoughts than those 
of study had taken possession of men's minds. Still, 
in spite of this terrible drawback, intellectual life beat 
vigorously in Oxford : the strife between the followers 
of Scotus and Ockham added the warmth of philo- 
sophic controversy to the immemorial feud between 
North and South : the questions raised by Ockham 
about the relations of the spiritual to the temporal 
power, his fervid writings in defence of the Emperor 
Lewis against Pope John XXII., must have stirred 
men's minds at Oxford as elsewhere. Wiclif may 
have listened to the lectures of Thomas Bradwardine, 
" Doctor profundus," as his contemporaries called him, 
who explored in his treatise, De Causa Dei, the question 
of Free-will and Necessity, and vindicated God's good- 
ness even in the evil of the world around, — a follower 

1 Dr. Poole has pointed out that Spreswell, long said to be the 
birthplace of Wiclif, is a misprint for Ipreswell, now Hipswell. — (L. C.) 



JOHN WICLIF 177 

of Augustine, as of one who " gave glory to the grace 
of God, and was a grand and sturdy champion of 
God's grace". Whether Wiclif heard him or not, 
he must have discussed these opinions, which, though 
within the pale of the Church's teaching, differed little 
from those which Luther afterwards used as the basis 
of his Protestant system. Richard Fitzralph also, 
afterwards Archbishop of Armagh, deeply impressed 
Wiclif, both speculatively by his learned refutation of 
the errors of the Armenians, and practically by his 
endeavours to check the Franciscans in the exercise 
of their privileges, and secure against them the posi- 
tion of the parish priest as well as the discipline of the 
university. Wiclif, we know, was an eager student, 
well versed in logic and metaphysics, deeply learned 
in theology, and delighting in the mathematical and 
natural sciences, from which he never wearies of draw- 
ing illustrations both in his books and sermons. 

Wiclif s personal history at the university has been 
rendered complicated by a doubt about his identity, 
owing to the existence of a person with a similar 
name,— a doubt which has been increased by a desire 
to clear him from any personal motives in his breach 
with the Papacy and the established ecclesiastical 
system. It is hopeless here to discuss the arguments 
or do more than indicate the general bearings of a 
question which belongs to the antiquary rather than 
the historian.^ In Wiclif s time, only a few privileged 

^I have to acknowledge the great assistance I have received in 
forming an opinion on this subject from a paper read to the Oxford 
Ashmolean Society by the Rev. Prebendary Wilkinson, and afterwards 
published in the Church Quarterly for October, 1877. 

12 



1/8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

scholars could find shelter in the walls of a college ; 
whether Wiclif did so or not cannot be said with 
certainty : if he did, his connexion with the North 
would naturally lead him to Balliol ; but Balliol was 
a very poor college at that time, and could not main- 
tain scholars longer than was necessary for them to 
proceed to their Master's degree. By the disputations 
held to qualify for that degree an aspiring scholar's 
reputation was made ; and whether Wiclif had been 
a member of Balliol Hall or not, it cannot excite any 
surprise if Merton College, the mother of nearly all 
Oxford's great names in the fourteenth century, re- 
ceived a man of Wiclif's distinction and reputation as 
a member of her society ; at all events the name of 
John de Wiclif is found in the list of Fellows of Merton 
in the year 1356. At this time also colleges were few, 
and college feeling was not yet powerful enough to 
absorb a wider patriotism or engender local and petty 
jealousies. So, on a vacancy in the Mastership of 
Balliol Hall in 1361, Wiclif was called to preside over 
the fortunes of that still struggling society ; he did not, 
however, long retain his office, for in the same year he 
was presented by Balliol to the living of Fillingham, 
in Lincolnshire. He still, however, resided a good 
deal in Oxford, and continued to teach ; and is men- 
tioned more than once in the books of Queen's College 
as tenant of a room there. 

But in the year 1365 Wiclif was called to a new 
office in the university. Archbishop Simon Islip 
was desirous of raising the reputation for learning of 
the secular clergy, who had suffered greatly from the 
ravages of the " Black Death," and whose ranks had 



JOHN WICLIF 179 

been hastily filled up ; he had therefore founded a 
new hall at Oxford, in which regular and secular 
clergy were to study together. According to the 
original statutes, the Warden was to be one of the 
monks of Christ Church, Canterbury ; but Archbishop 
Islip was dissatisfied with his first nominee, John 
Woodhall, and using a founder's privileges altered his 
first statutes and nominated John de Wiclif as Warden 
in his stead. Soon after making this appointment, 
Islip died, and was succeeded by Simon Langham, 
who, being himself a monk, took a different view of 
the question of Canterbury Hall ; the expelled Warden 
raised a complaint ; the matter was investigated by the 
Archbishop, and a decision given in his favour ; Wiclif 
and his party of seculars had to retire in their turn, 
and Woodhall triumphantly returned. It was now 
Wiclif s turn to appeal, and the case was argued before 
the Papal Court, where it was finally given against 
Wiclif, and the Pope's decision confirmed by an order 
from the King in 1371. 

So far there is nothing inconsistent in this account 
of Wiclif s life, and there is no reason for distrusting 
contemporary evidence on the matter ; but it has been 
pointed out that there was another John Wytcleve, or 
Whitecliffe, who was vicar of Mayfield, and apparently 
well known to Archbishop Islip, to whom the Warden- 
ship of Canterbury Hall more fitly applies. Dr. Shirley 
has produced considerable evidence in favour of this 
view, and discredits the value of the testimony of the 
contemporary controversialist, William Woodford, who 
states that Wiclif per religiosos possessionatos et prce- 
latos expulsus fuerat de aula monachorum Cantuarice. 



i8o HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

These arguments of Dr. Shirley, which seemed at first 
sight very strong, are on further investigation not so 
convincing, and are, as Dr. Lechler points out, not 
enough to counterbalance Woodford's testimony, of 
whom Wiclif himself makes honourable mention, and 
to whom he acknowledges his obligations. 

Really the desire to clear Wiclif from any suspicion 
of personal motives in his after-life, and an exaggerated 
conception of the importance of the Canterbury Hall 
episode, are perhaps at the bottom of the wish to make 
two John Wiclifs, and so exempt the Reformer from 
any grudge against either monks or Pope. There is, 
however, no reason for viewing the question of the 
Wardenship of Canterbury Hall as one of great im- 
portance, or as likely to arouse bitter personal feelings ; 
it was merely a part of the standing quarrel between 
the regular and secular clergy : Archbishop I slip tried 
to moderate between the two ; Archbishop Langham, 
being a monk, could not desert his order, and almost 
as a matter of course gave his decision in its favour. 
Wiclif appealed to the Pope, who confirmed Lang- 
ham's decision, as did also the King, who did not, 
however, neglect to take a good fine from the monks 
as the price of his compliance. Meanwhile Wiclif was 
living peaceably in his rooms at Queen's College ; no 
extraordinary fate had befallen him ; no slur had been 
cast either upon his character or his orthodoxy ; it 
was merely an incident in the fight of parties, and the 
monks had won the day. It was not a question of 
much importance ; the position of Warden of Canter- 
bury Hall must have been a very slight honour to a 
man of Wiclifs reputation ; nor is it wonderful that 



JOHN WICLIF i8i 

he was appointed a royal chaplain, probably by the 
same Archbishop Langham who dispossessed him of an 
office which he considered only fit for a monk. The 
King also would have no hesitation in confirming, 
especially when his exchequer benefited in the pro- 
cess, the Pope's decision on a purely technical point, 
although it concerned a person of considerable reputa- 
tion in his own court. The question was a legal 
question, and was considered without any personal 
feeling ; Wiclif alludes to it once in passing, and calls 
it difamiliarius exemplum of what he regarded as an 
abuse ; with the exception of Woodford's slight men- 
tion, it is never brought forward against him, simply 
because it contained no ground for personal attack. 

Wiclif continued to teach at Oxford and discharge 
the duties of royal chaplain, when, in the year 1366, 
he was called upon by the King to answer the 
untimely demand made by Pope Urban V. for the 
homage of England. His answer is especially in- 
teresting, as he gives the arguments which he had 
heard used in Parliament, recapitulating the speeches 
of seven Lords, and thus supplying us with probably 
the earliest record of a Parliamentary debate. It was 
the commencement of the most vigorous crisis of the 
reaction against the Papacy which had begun in the 
reign of Henry HI., and which was gathering strength 
in England during the whole of the fourteenth century. 

Already had the shadows of misfortune begun to 
close over the last years of Edward HI. : France was 
almost lost : the Black Prince was stricken by a mortal 
illness : a stream of turbulent spirits, trained in the 
wars, was setting homewards and adding to the dis- 



182 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

quiet of men's minds. A bitter anticlerical feeling 
prompted Parliament in 1371 to petition the King 
that secular men only might be employed in his court 
and household : William of Wykeham resigned the 
seals, and a lay Ministry, in which the chief mover 
was the Duke of Lancaster, came into power. Hence 
sprung the alliance between the Duke and Wiclif, an 
alliance prompted by political interest on one side, by 
national and patriotic feeling on the other. But Wiclif 
was soon disappointed by the timidity of the new 
Government : the Papal collector appeared as usual in 
England, and the Government was content to administer 
to him an oath that he would do nothing contrary to 
the laws or liberties of the kingdom. In a remarkable 
pamphlet, printed by Dr. Lechler in his Appendix, 
Wiclif indignantly asks, Can it be otherwise than per- 
nicious to the laws and liberties of the realm that a 
foreign potentate should plunder it at will ? 

It was Wiclif s first disappointment, but he was soon 
to meet with still harder ones. Parliament clamoured 
for redress of the wrongs which patrons of benefices 
were continually suffering at the hands of the Pope and 
his provisors, and it was agreed that the matter should 
be discussed at Bruges with Papal commissioners, at 
the same time as the congress was being held to 
arrange peace with France (1374). Gilbert, Bishop 
of Bangor, was head of the commission, and Wiclif, 
we may suppose, its leading member. The conference 
ended, and all waited for its results. The peace with 
France was another instance of the failures of English 
diplomacy ; and when, in September, 1375, six lengthy 
bulls arrived from the Pope, full of arrangements for 



JOHN WICLIF 183 

past informalities, but with no promise of amendment 
for the future, popular indignation began to wax high. 
The promotion of the Bishop of Bangor to the See of 
Hereford seemed a recompense for his traitorous 
betrayal of England's interests : peace had been made 
with France to further the intrigues of the Duke of 
Lancaster : had he truckled to the Pope as well to 
suit his own ends ? The first " lay Ministry " had 
belied all its promises of ecclesiastical reform : a re- 
action set in, and the "Good Parliament" (1376) left 
a deep impress of its zeal on English history : the 
long list of grievances against the Pope which it drew 
up bears the strongest marks of Wiclif s influence. 

Wiclif was still merely a parish priest: in 1368 he 
exchanged the living of Fillingham for that of Ludger- 
shall, in Buckinghamshire ; and in 1374 was presented 
by the King to the living of Lutterworth, which he held 
till his death. Yet he was an important person in 
England, and his adherence to the Duke of Lancaster 
involved him in the struggles of political parties. The 
Good Parliament was not to repeat its triumphs, for 
the death of the Black Prince again threw power into 
the hands of Lancaster, and enabled him again to 
assert his influence over the now imbecile King. He 
was determined to rid himself of his chief political 
foes, and accusations were brought against William 
of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, the chief of his 
opponents ; in consequence of which Wykeham's tem- 
poralities were forfeited, and he was banished the court 
But the clergy, under the leadership of Cofirtenay, the 
popular and aristocratic Bishop of London (he was of 
the noble family of the Earls of Devon), made Wyke- 



1 84 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

ham's cause their own, and refused to proceed with the 
business of Convocation till Wykeham had received a 
■ summons to attend (February, 1377). This was Cour- 
tenay's first triumph, and he was determined to follow 
it up : he compelled the reluctant Archbishop Sudbury 
to summon Lancaster's clerical champion, Wiclif, to 
answer to his Ordinary for his opinions. The story of 
his success need not be repeated : Lancaster's insolent 
bearing and unbridled tongue roused the feelings of 
the Londoners in defence of their Bishop ; Lancaster 
had to flee, and the inquiry ended in confusion almost 
before it had begun. The Duke, blind with rage, 
hastened to Parliament, and proposed to deprive the 
City of its municipal rights and privileges ; the Lon- 
doners rose and sacked the Duke's palace of the Savoy ; 
nor would they desist till Bishop Courtenay interposed 
to save what still remained. Courtenay had gained his 
object : Lancaster was overcome, and had to permit 
Wykeham's return. No further measures were taken 
against Wiclif; we do not even know what were the 
charges preferred against him : this trial was no effort 
of the English hierarchy to repress heresy, but rather 
a political movement on the part of the clerical-minis- 
terial party to discredit the chief of the opposition. 

Dr. Lechler throughout his work attributes an amount 
of ecclesiastical intolerance to the English bishops, 
which they do not at this time seem to have possessed. 
Sudbury and Courtenay were both of them politicians 
rather than ecclesiastics, and behaved accordingly. Dr. 
Lechler assumes that Wiclif was summoned before Con- 
vocation, but Foxe's language, though vague, seems to 
make it more probable that he was summoned before 



JOHN WICLIF 185 

the Archbishop as his Ordinary. Similarly, Dr. Lechler, 
forcing Foxe's expressions, asserts that the English 
bishops lost no time in applying to the Pope, whose 
bulls against Wiclif are dated 22nd May, 1377. Dr. 
Lechler is too exclusively employed in writing the life 
of a Reformer, who as such, he assumes, must necessarily 
have been persecuted, and does not sufficiently consider 
the national attitude towards the Papacy, or the char- 
acter of the English bishops. Pope Gregory XI. had 
reasons enough for wishing to interfere in English 
affairs, without requiring the instigation of English 
prelates : in his bull addressed to Archbishop Sudbury 
and Bishop Courtenay he reproves them as " slothfully 
negligent, insomuch that latent motions and open at- 
tempts of the enemy are perceived at Rome before 
they are opposed in England " : he orders them to 
inquire at once into Wiclif s opinions, and send him 
the result ; and, as if foreseeing opposition and de- 
sirous of providing against it, he issues a bull to the 
King, praying him to grant the Papal commissioners 
his favour and protection in the discharge of their duty. 
At the_ same time also, to strike terror into the minds 
of Wiclif s followers in their stronghold, a bull was sent 
to the University of Oxford, reproving its members for 
suffering " tares to spring up among the pure wheat of 
the glorious field of the university," and bidding them 
give up Wiclif to the Papal commissioners. 

Although the commission is dated 22nd May, no 
action was taken by the commissioners till i8th 
December : they were not in a hurry to proceed on 
such an unpopular business. Walsingham, the monkish 
historian, complains bitterly of their dilatoriness and 



1 86 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

half-heartedness. Edward III. died on 21st June, and 
the first Parliament of Richard II. showed itself strongly 
opposed to Rome, — nay, even submitted for Wiclif s 
opinion the question of the constitutional legality of 
prohibiting the export of English money to the Pope. 
Wiclif gives his judgment in favour of the legality of 
such a prohibition : he bases his opinion on the natural 
law of self-preservation, and the gospel precept that 
almsgiving (for he regarded Church property as alms) 
ceases to be a duty for those who are themselves in 
want. 

It is not, under these circumstances, surprising to 
find that the Archbishop wished to act cautiously, and 
to discharge the duty which the Papal injunctions had 
laid upon him, with all possible circumspection. The 
Council of the University of Oxford doubted whether 
they should receive the Papal bull or not ; the Arch- 
bishop's summons to Wiclif was couched in very cour- 
teous terms, and made no mention of the imprisonment 
which the Pope had enjoined, if necessary. Wiclif 
appeared before the commissioners early in 1378, 
but their sittings soon came to an end ; the Princess 
Dowager of Wales sent them a message to desist, and 
the clamours of the Londoners left them no option : 
they seem to have been only too glad to rid themselves 
of a somewhat ignominious office, and the monkish 
writers are loud in denouncing their cowardice. The 
matter went no farther for the present, for on 27th 
March Gregory XI. died ; and the schism in the 
Papacy that ensued supplied it with other occupation 
/ than that of investigating heresy in England. 

The Pope had submitted to his commissioners 



JOHN WICLIF 187 

nineteen points on which he had been informed that 
Wiclif was heretical, and on which he wished him to 
be further examined : they are questions concerning 
(i) the denial of the right of private property and of 
right of inheritance ; (2) the assertion of the right, 
and in some cases the duty, of secularising Church prop- 
erty ; (3) the assertion that the Church discipline of 
absolution or excommunication is necessarily limited 
by its conformity to the law of Christ. These con- 
clusions are obscurely expressed in the Pope's bull, 
and are technically defended by Wiclif; they are 
only useful as indicating the source from which his 
opinions grew, and the side from which he approached 
the question of reform. Wiclif was emphatically an 
Englishman, and developed his opinions round the 
national grievances : as one called in to counsel the 
Parliament smarting under Papal exactions and awak- 
ened fully to their ignominy, he had passed on to 
find in Scripture and in natural right, a firm basis for 
national remonstrance and resistance. 

The outbreak of the Papal schism was watched by 
Wiclif with the deepest interest : at first he expected 
great things from Urban VI., whose character stood 
high before his election to the Papacy ; he was, how- 
ever, soon disappointed by the cruel and perfidious 
character of Urban's acts : he ceased to be an adherent 
of Urban, and became neutral. Gradually, as the 
miserable schism went on, and the high office of suc- 
cessor to St. Peter was made an object of every possible 
intrigue and trickery, the heart of Wiclif waxed hot 
within him, and his indignation found quick expression : 
each of these pretenders was equally antichrist ; the 



188 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

institution of the Papacy itself was mischievous and 
destructive. If any good were to be done for the poor 
sheep wandering without a shepherd, every serious man 
must give himself to the work and do what he could, 
whether helped or hindered by those in power. The 
years between 1378 and 1382 seem to have been years 
of untiring labour on Wiclif s part, — years consumed 
in efforts at reform. He organised and sent out 
preachers throughout the land ; he translated parts of 
the Scriptures into English ; he preached and wrote 
continually, and his utterances were carried far and 
wide through England. 

First, Lutterworth became a centre for itinerant 
preachers, who went forth, as the disciples of St. 
Francis had done before, to labour amongst the poor 
and the neglected ; perhaps these preachers consisted 
first of those who had gathered round Wiclif as their 
master in Oxford, and had been impressed by his 
zeal. The reform of preaching was one of Wiclif s 
great objects, and many of his sermons and addresses 
are directed to that object. Too often, he complains, 
not God's word, but other matters, are the subjects 
of preaching; barren speculations, legends, tales and 
fables, take the place of Scripture teaching ; even when 
God's word is preached, it is not preached rightly, — not 
in simplicity and purity, but with self-assertion on the 
preacher's part, with elaborate ornament and turgid 
rhetoric. But the " trewe preestis " (^fideles or simplices 
sacerdotes) who go forth under Wiclif's influence go 
forth to. preach God's word, and that only, — to preach 
it " where, when, and to whom they could ". So vigor- 
ous were they, that in 1382 Archbishop Courtenay 



JOHN WICLIF 189 

writes that "heretical doctrines are spread on every 
side, not only in churches, but in public places and 
other profane spots ". Wiclif had set on foot a great 
spiritual revival in the Church ; and (as Dr. Shirley 
has remarked) if his mental acuteness had not led him 
to examine the intellectual basis of his belief, and so 
involved him in a criticism of the doctrine of Transub- 
stantiation, he might have come down to us canonised 
as St. John de Wiclif, founder of a new order of 
preaching friars. 

Even, however, within the limits of this institution, 
Wiclif seems to have advanced to a point where colli- 
sion with the hierarchy was inevitable. These " pore 
preestis " were at first all duly ordained, but soon we find 
the Lollard preachers are laymen, and this change 
seems to have been made with Wiclif s knowledge and 
approbation : in his later writings the preachers are 
no longer called simplices sacerdotes, but viri apostolici 
or evangelici. 

It was for these preachers that Wiclif wrote many 
of his smaller English tractates, and perhaps some of 
his sermons were intended as models for them ; but 
his great work was the translation of the Bible into 
English, undertaken by him and his associates — a work 
which marked an epoch not only in the ecclesiastical, 
but also in the literary history of England. 

Under these circumstances we cannot wonder that 
a man of Wiclif s keen, penetrating intellect rapidly 
developed his opinions when once he had the goal 
clearly before him : moreover, what he clearly saw he 
lost no time in clearly expressing ; thought and utter- 
ance were to him almost identical : he strove onward 



I90 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

towards the highest truth he perceived, and was not 
hindered by the traditions or prejudices of his earlier 
years from accepting honestly the conclusions of his 
thought : " many things that once I thought strange, 
now seem to me to be catholic : when I by God's 
power became a man, I put away by God's grace 
childish things ". Wiclif has, indeed, a proper claim 
to the title of " Doctor Evangelicus," for no one could 
take his stand more resolutely upon the plain basis of 
Scripture. The constitutional struggles of England's 
past history had already stamped deeply a feeling of 
legality and order on the English mind, and coloured 
its view of all things else. " What claim can we have 
to Christian privileges," exclaims Wiclif, "if we abandon 
our Great Charter, written and given to us by God, on 
which alone can we found our claims to His kingdom ? " 
Every action of the individual's life is only so far legiti- 
mate as it is in accordance with the law of the gospel, 
— nay, " the whole body of human law ought to depend 
on the law of the gospel as on a rule essentially divine ". 
We seem to hear the principles of Savonarola, and to 
see foreshadowed the workings of Puritan theocracy. 

But how was Scripture to be interpreted ? At first 
Wiclif admitted two sources — reason and the " exposi- 
tion of holy doctors approved of by the Church ". But 
he soon advanced beyond a position which would have 
re-established authority and have robbed him of all 
that he had won. In his later writings he insists that 
the Holy Ghost alone can expound to the individual 
Christian the Scriptures, even as Christ taught His 
apostles ; he only can hope to understand aright who 
leads a holy life and seeks the truth in humility of mind. 



JOHN WICLIF 191 

Moreover, he lays down some modern canons of inter- 
pretation : " Scripture contains but one Word of God " ; 
" One part of Scripture is best expounded by another ". 
In one passage he calls attention to the necessity of 
noticing carefully St. Paul's use of prepositions and 
adverbs. He insists with the utmost emphasis on the 
right of all Christian men to the Scriptures. " If the 
worde of Christ is the lyfe of the worlde, howe maye 
any antechriste for dreade of God take it awaye frome 
us that be christen men, and thus to suffer the people 
to dye for hunger ? " 

Noticeable also is Wiclif s strong desire to set forth 
Christ, under the forms of political phraseology, as the 
supreme Head of the human race : he calls Him " Con- 
questor optimus," " Caesar noster," " Caesar semper 
augustus " ; " God made him Priour of al his religion, 
and he was Abbot of the best ordre that may be ". He 
is our Bishop ; He is our Pope. Hence Wiclif objects 
to the limitation of the term " Church " to the clergy ; 
the Church consists of the whole number of the elect ; 
it is " moder to eche man that shal be saved, and con- 
teyneth no membre but ownly men that shalen be 
saved " ; yet of this salvation can no man be sure 
either in his own case or that of another. Thus Wiclif 
is opposed to all hierarchical pretensions, and objects 
to the elevation of an office into the basis of a class dis- 
tinction : there is no difference of class between layman 
and clerk ; every Christian ought to be a theologian ; a 
good layman is higher than a negligent priest ; if priests 
do not do their duty, the laity should deprive them of 
their possessions as being enemies of God's Church. 

In the early part of his life Wiclif was on friendly 



192 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

terms with the Friars : he recognises them as estab- 
lished by the Holy Ghost for the edification of the 
Church. They on their part seem to have stood by 
him ; and many of his biographers, who failed to follow 
his gradual development, have been puzzled by the 
presence of four Friars as his advisers when he ap- 
peared before the Archbishop. His spiritual earnest- 
ness led him early to rebuke the indolence of the 
wealthy monastic orders {religiosi possessionati) ; but 
it was not till the year 1380, when first he attacked 
the doctrine of Transubstantiation, that he became 
embroiled with the Friars. On this question, as on all 
others, he is led by a rational study of the Scriptures 
to controvert the prevalent materialism. In a sermon 
on the text, " I am come not to do My own will, but 
the will of Him that sent Me," he observes that the 
two wills are not alternatives, but co-existed in Christ. 
This principle of interpretation he applies to the words 
of consecration : the bread remains bread, but is also, 
principaliteVy the body of Christ ; he who holds the 
materialist view " destroys grammar, logic and natural 
science, and, what is more lamentable, does away with 
the meaning of the gospel ". As Christ's godhead and 
manhood co-exist in one person, so does Christ's body 
co-exist with the bread. Consequently the adoration 
of the Host is mere idolatry. Wiclif, as Dr. Lechler 
remarks, overthrew Transubstantiation ; and it is per- 
haps his greatest contribution to the theology of the 
Reformation. The Hussites took up the question 
where he left it, and attacked the denial of the cup to 
the laity ; it remained for Luther to overthrow the 
doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass. 



JOHN WICLIF 193 

It was this question of Transubstantiation that 
brought WicHf into his last collision with the hie- 
rarchy. He published in Oxford twelve theses on 
the subject which he was prepared to maintain. The 
Chancellor, William of Berton, took counsel with 
twelve Doctors of Divinity, and forbade unorthodox 
teaching on pain of expulsion from the university : 
there was great excitement in Oxford, and Wiclif 
appealed, not to his Ordinary, the Bishop of Lincoln, 
but to the King : the question was a national question, 
to be settled by King and Parliament alone. 

But before Wiclif s appeal could proceed before the 
King, the rising of the villeins under Wat Tyler and 
Jack Straw had terrified the barons and the middle 
class, which was rapidly rising in wealth and import- 
ance : a reaction had set in against Wiclif, against 
innovation generally : he was looked upon as a danger- 
ous person, and instead of being powerful enough to 
make an attack, had to stand upon his defence. There 
can be no doubt that Wiclif himself was entirely with- 
out any share in the disturbances of the eventful year 
1381^ The cessation of the French wars had brought 
back to England a number of villeins who had served 
in their campaigns, and who found it hard to submit 
to their former serfage : land had been changing hands, 
the commercial classes had become large proprietors, 
the sentimental side of the relations between lord and 
vassal had now fallen away : at the very time that the 
iniquity of villeinage was most clearly seen, its oppres- 
sive character was making itself more harshly felt. 
The demands of the villeins show how entirely their 
rising was the result of their social misery, though they 

13 



194 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

seem to have had amongst their leaders some who 
contemplated schemes of political or social revolution. 
True, they put the Archbishop mercilessly to death, 
but it was as Chancellor, not as Archbishop, that he 
suffered. True, they plundered monasteries, but it was 
for the same reason that they sacked lawyers' offices 
and destroyed all parchments, — they wished to abolish 
all those title-deeds by which they were transferred 
like cattle from one owner to another. The clergy 
were wealthy, and had no sympathy with the people ; 
the mendicants were poor, and so had a fellow-feeling 
with them ; the poor were all welcome, their hatred 
was only against the rich. The attempt to implicate 
Wiclif in their rising has no foundation whatever in 
the facts of the case. But still we can see how Wiclif 
was looked upon by the affrighted burghers, when they 
began to recover from their shock, as a man whose 
principles were dangerous, one with whom it was not 
well to agree too far. Certainly socialistic and com- 
munistic principles had been spread among the rebels, 
and Wiclif had been accused by the Pope of denying 
the rights of ownership and hereditary succession. No 
doubt Wiclif in his teaching had been led on by the 
necessity of combating the Pope's claims to suzerainty 
over England to consider the whole question of lord- 
ship and ownership {dominium\ ' The claims of the 
Pope and the claims of the hierarchy were to him 
equally untenable ; the canon law had adopted the 
term dominium to express the position of the clergy 
towards the laity, and it expressed also the Pope's 
position towards the Church : Wiclif was compelled 
to examine its real meaning. The metaphysical basis 



JOHN WICLIF 195 

of Wiclif s system was consistently realistic ; the " uni- 
versal " and the " idea " are used by him as interchange- 
able terms : the idea is the thought of the Divine Mind 
expressed in the created thing ; the Divine Intelligence 
is actually and completely reproduced in the created 
world, and in every part of it (omne ens est realiter 
ipse Deus). God, therefore, is the sole Lord of the 
world ; He became its Lord by the creation : all lord- 
ship of men is a lordship founded on force : only so 
far as it is in accordance with God's law is it a rightful 
lordship. Wiclif advanced his realism consistently to 
the farthest point, and we cannot doubt that opinions 
such as these produced some impression on the social 
theories of an oppressed yet not degraded people. 
Wiclif's theories on this point are full of interest. 

We cannot, however, wonder that the man excited 
some suspicion who taught the people, " Whanne men 
geve not almes to pore nedy men, but to dede ymagis, 
either riche clerkis, thei robbyn pore men of her due 
porcoun, and needful sustinance, assigned to hem of 
God himself; and whenne thei robben pore men, thei 
robben Jhesu Crist, as he seith in xxv. ch. of Math. &c." 

It is not therefore surprising to find that when the 
tumult had subsided, a violent reaction against all 
new opinions set in. Henry le Spencer, the fighting 
Bishop of Norwich, girt on his armour, and ruthlessly 
massacred the villeins on their way home. The middle 
class, as represented by the Commons, compelled the 
young King to revoke the charters which he had 
granted to the villeins, who too trustingly believed a 
king's word. Courtenay, Bishop of London, Wiclifs 
old antagonist, succeeded to the Archbishopric ren- 



196 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

dered vacant by Sudbury's murder, and we cannot 
wonder that he wished to put down opinions which 
had brought his predecessor to an ignominious death. 
Some inquiry was necessary, but the one which the 
Archbishop set on foot was conducted with all possible 
moderation : an assembly of bishops, doctors of the- 
ology and doctors of law was held in London to decide 
on certain opinions which the Archbishop laid before 
them : of these, ten were pronounced heretical, fourteen 
erroneous. No mention was made of persons, nor were 
the condemned opinions attributed to any particular 
party : a more moderate course would scarcely have 
been possible, consistently with the maintenance of 
ecclesiastical discipline. 

Such facts may at present, it is to be hoped, be 
admitted without hesitation and judged with calm- 
ness. But Dr. Lechler unfortunately has advanced very 
little beyond the unreasoning and uncritical judgments 
of Protestant apologists. In his eyes, Wiclif was right 
and the Bishops were wrong ; consequently their as- 
sertion of their own opinions, which happened also to 
be those of the majority of Christendom, was iniquitous 
persecution : the fact that the opinions were first con- 
demned and then the persons is only an additional proof 
of the subtle malice of Wiclif s foes, who proceeded in 
this insidious way to undermine his prestige. Such 
a view as this robs a character like Wiclifs of its real 
interest : a reformer with a large party to support him, 
committed to a desperate contest with a resolute body 
of opponents, is not really so grand and noble a sight 
as is the earnest seeker after truth who has advanced 
step by step, saying out the utmost that he saw, with 



JOHN WICLIF 197 

no deliberate system, with no settled plan of antagon- 
ism, — but still with such a hatred for saying " Peace " 
when there is no peace, that even the most considerate 
demeanour of those in authority, who are themselves 
perplexed and would gladly keep silence so long as 
they could, cannot lead him for a moment to gainsay 
his beliefs or fall back on the old system, though that 
still suffices for so many, and though he knows that he 
has no system to set up against it or offer in its stead. 
Wiclif remained within the Church, though his opinions 
were condemned by the Church to which he still clung : 
and he was left undisturbed in his quiet parish of 
Lutterworth. 

The opinions of Wiclif which were condemned as 
heretical concerned Transubstantiation and the priestly 
office : those condemned as erroneous dealt chiefly with 
matters of Church discipline. An attempt was made 
to pass a statute empowering the civil officers to assist 
the ecclesiastical in inquiring into the condemned 
opinions in the different counties. The Commons, 
however, refused their consent : as yet their terror had 
not advanced so far as to make them lay aside their 
natural and healthy prejudice against investigations 
into men's opinions. Oxford, however, stood out 
against the ecclesiastical decree : the orthodox and 
heterodox parties were very evenly balanced ; Wiclifite 
opinions were publicly preached, and ecclesiastical feel- 
ing ran high among the excitable students. The royal 
power, however, was invoked, and the Archbishop as 
Metropolitan held his court of inquiry : three of the 
chief leaders of Wiclif s party in Oxford, Hereford, 
Repington and Aston, were examined, condemned and 



198 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

excommunicated. Their opinions, however, were not 
strong enough to stand this test : two of them recanted ; 
of Hereford we have only uncertain accounts. Ap- 
parently, Wiclif himself was also summoned, though 
this is uncertain : if so, the Archbishop must have 
been contented with a very slight explanation of his 
opinions. Perhaps he was already showing signs of 
infirmity, and had given up teaching in the university, 
so that he no longer came under the scope of the 
Archbishop's intention, which was to maintain the 
orthodox opinions amongst the lecturers there. 

Anyhow, the last two years of Wiclif s life were spent 
in peace at Lutterworth, and his utterances are not 
those of a man whose moral force had been checked 
by persecution. The iniquitous plundering expedi- 
tion to Flanders made by Henry le Spencer, the Bishop 
of Norwich, in 1383, under the name of a Crusade 
against the Clementists, on behalf of the rival Pope 
Urban VI., raised Wiclif s disgust : he wrote a tract 
in which he expressed his contempt for the two men, 
calling themselves vicars of Christ, who are snarling 
like two dogs for a bone ; it is time for the princes of 
Europe to arouse themselves, and take away from 
both this bone of contention, the temporal power : 
nay, Wiclif even addresses a letter to the Archbishop, 
remonstrating against his sanction being given to a 
*^ crusade of one Pope against another. ^ Urban VI. is 
said to have summoned Wiclif to answer for his 
opinions before him ; but Wiclif s health prevented 
him from appearing. He published, however, a letter 
to "alle trewe men," explaining his reasons for not going, 
— a letter couched in terms of biting irony and uncon- 



JOHN WICLIF 199 

cealed contempt for the Papal authority. " I take as 
holesome counseile," he exclaims, " that the Pope leeve 
his worldly lordschip to worldly lords, as Christ gaf 
him, and move speedily all his clerks to do so : for 
thus did Christ, and taught thus his disciples, till the y 
fende had blynded this world." 

Wiclif died at Lutterworth on 31st December, 1384, 
in consequence of a paralytic seizure which had come 
upon him three days before, as he was attending mass 
in his own parish church. 

Wiclif was, in an emphatic sense, the first of the 
Reformers, — the first man who examined not merely 
some one part of the existing system, but who ventured 
to expose its very foundations, — One who was not con- 
tent merely with speculative utterances, but who set 
himself, and drew others with him, to lead a life in 
accordance with the gospel. He was no mere popular 
teacher, appealing to the emotions of his hearers, and 
setting up a simple moral standard which touched the 
hearts of men made callous by immoral, because un- 
meaning, dogma and ceremonial : deeply learned him- 
self in all the wisdom of the schoolmen, and throwing 
his teaching very frequently into a formal and scholastic 
mould, he argues out his opinions with clearness and 
force, and uses an almost modern power of criticism 
in his attacks on current doctrines. He is in all things 
eminently rational and critical ; never appeals for his 
basis to purely emotional or even purely moral con- 
siderations ; yet his formal method is profoundly 
penetrated by an earnestness, a sincerity, a fervent 
desire for truth, which leave no place for coldness. 
It was this fervour of earnestness, joined with clearness 



200 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

and precision of thought, that made him so great a 
master of the EngHsh tongue, and enabled him to 
stamp his mark so definitely upon it. 

In truth, standing as he does so near the source of 
English literature, Wiclif is no unapt symbol of some 
of the most characteristic qualities of English thought : 
deep moral earnestness ; an abhorrence of semblances ; 
an entire self-forgetfulness in the pursuit of truth ; 
sincerity that refused to be hardened by conceit into 
consistency ; clearness that would not be led farther 
than was needful for immediate purposes ; honesty 
that did not shrink from negation if negation was all 
that was possible ; a thorough desire to bring all 
opinions to the test of practice and judge them by 
their results ; a feeling of the moral duty of spreading 
knowledge, of popularising the results of study, and 
making them known to all. Nor is Wiclif less remark- 
able in his historical position and the development of 
his views : here, too, he is a type of later English move- 
ments. Commencing from the national dislike to the 
Pope, as being England's national foe, he was a consti- 
tutional patriot before he passed into the region of 
ecclesiastical reform. His views developed in the 
midst of great national commotions and excitement, 
but, though stimulated by passing politics, received 
from them no tinge of insincerity or distortion from 
complete integrity. The true spirit of the gospel sent 
him to the poor and needy, and he never let go their 
cause. 

Even in the faint outlines in which we see him across 
the gulf of five centuries, he attracts us to him as one 
who yet has a living message for us ; even in the faint 



JOHN WICLIF 201 

outlines— for he still wanders, in spite of Dr. Lechler's 
efforts, a spectral form in the region of antiquarianism 
and archaeology. Not till we know more of scholastic 
theology — not till the details of contemporary history 
have been more carefully worked out — and not till 
Wiclif 's works have been still more thoroughly explored 
and edited— can we hope that he will stand out to us 
a breathing figure with a message to us that we can 
fully understand. 



202 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER.^ 

It is a familiar fact that the See of Worcester for forty 
years before the Reformation was occupied by a series 
of Italian bishops, and this fact is often quoted as an 
instance of Papal aggression on the rights and revenues 
of the English Church. Doubtless it is an illustration 
of the unsatisfactory working of the machinery of the 
Church in a time when the Papal supremacy had ceased 
to be beneficial ; but, as a matter of history, the ap- 
pointment of these Italians was due to the English 
King, and not to the suggestion, still less to the author- 
ity, of the Pope. In the fifteenth century the Papacy 
had little power of interfering in English affairs contrary 
to the royal will. The Italian Bishops of Worcester 
were really servants of the King and not of the Pope. 
They illustrate one side of the secularisation of the 
Church, the appropriation of its revenues to the service 
of the State, by conferring spiritual offices on temporal 
officials. No invariable line of distinction can be drawn 
between things temporal and spiritual ; and in all ages 
of the Church great churchmen have exercised an in- 
fluence upon national affairs. In early times they 
were bishops first and statesmen afterwards. Then 
came a time when they were statesmen first, and were 
chosen to be bishops on account of their tried capacity. 

^ A paper read to the Worcester Architectural and Archasological 
Society, on the i6th of August, i88g. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 203 

But in the fifteenth century we reach a point in which 
bishoprics were frankly regarded as affording salaries 
for such officials as the rapid development of the State 
required for its increasing needs. The case of Worces- 
ter is only exceptionally flagrant, because its revenues 
were deliberately set apart for the payment of a dip- 
lomatic agent at the Roman Court. The agent was 
chosen for his fitness for the task. He was naturally 
an Italian, for an Italian was more useful than an Eng- 
lishman. He was avowedly resident out of England, 
and permanently discharged his episcopal functions by 
proxy. This system was set on foot by an agreement 
between the King and the Pope — an agreement which 
no doubt seemed natural and obvious to both of them. 
It illustrates the decay of the spiritual life of the Church, 
and it illustrates also the great development of diplo- 
macy, which was a marked feature of the sixteenth 
century. 

It is interesting to inquire why Worcester should 
have been specially selected for this distinction of 
maintaining a non-resident bishop. It may be noticed 
that it did not stand alone in this honour. In 1502 
its neighbour, Hereford, received as its bishop an 
Italian of enigmatical career, Adrian di Castello, who 
was translated in 1504 to Bath and Wells; similarly, 
in 1524, Lorenzo Campeggio was made Bishop of Salis- 
bury. Thus it would seem that the western part of 
the Midlands was thought to be best able to dispense 
with bishops, and Worcester best of all. The reasons, 
we may be sure, were political rather than spiritual, 
and probably arose from the improved condition of 
the Welsh Marches. In earlier times the Bishops of 



204 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Hereford and Worcester had much work to do in 
guarding the Marches, and often played an important 
part in English politics, but their importance gradually 
dwindled as the organisation of the state grew more 
complete. In 1478 the establishment of the Court of 
the President and Council of Wales at Ludlow marked 
that the days of episcopal government were past. 
Henry VII. intended that his son, Arthur, should 
exercise the functions of Prince of Wales, and for a 
few months before his death in April, 1 502, the boy 
kept his Court at Ludlow. In the face of these 
changes it was well to abolish the old traditions of the 
Sees of Hereford and Worcester, and this could easily 
be done by leaving them for a time in the hands of 
foreigners. The revenues of Worcester were large 
enough to form an ample provision for an ambassador, 
and the diocese was so well filled with wealthy monas- 
teries that the external dignity of the Church would 
be well provided for without a bishop. Such, perhaps, 
were the motives of policy which marked out the See 
of Worcester as a suitable prey. 

Moreover, the degradation of the bishopric was a 
gradual process. The first step was to appropriate 
part of the revenues of the see to provide a salary 
for the new officials, whom increased intercourse with 
the Roman Court rendered necessary. Henry VII. en- 
couraged foreigners, who were men of letters, to settle 
in England, that they might introduce a higher stand- 
ard of polite literature, and might become channels of 
communication with other countries. Among these 
foreigners was an Italian, Peter Carmelianus, who 
became the King's Latin Secretary. In i486 Henry 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 205 

VII. granted him "the pension which he that shall 
next be promoted unto the bishopric of Worcester is 
bound to yield to a clerk of ours at our nomination "} 
When this system had been established it was easy 
to take the next step of raising the pensioner to the 
possession of the full revenues of the see. In the first 
instance, however, the man so chosen was one who 
might conceivably be fit to discharge the duties of his 
office. It cannot be said that the first Italian bishop 
was an entire stranger to England, or was likely to 
be permanently non-resident. On the contrary, he 
was a man who had spent most of his active life in 
the country, and was well versed in English affairs. 
He was, further, a scholar and a man of letters, whose 
pen had been used in attempting to bring into Eng- 
land the graces of style which Italy was cultivating 
with eager delight. He may well have been chosen 
as a representative of the new life of the Renaissance, 
which in the troubled times of the War of the Roses 
had found little place in England. 

Of the early life of Giovanni dei Gigli I have not 
been able to discover much. He was a native of Lucca, 
was born in 1434, studied in some university, took the 
degrees of Doctor of Canon and Civil Law, but found 
time also for the study of classical literature. It is 
quite possible that he may have seen in Italy, in I459> 
a distinguished Englishman who greatly impressed the 
Italians by his scholarly attainments — John Tiptoft, 
Earl of Worcester. In English history Tiptoft is only 
known as a ruthless soldier, whose execution in 1470 

1 Campbell, Materials for a History of the Reign of Henry VII., i., 
38. 



2o6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

was hailed with universal joy ; but in Italy he was one 
of the very few Englishmen who had a reputation for 
culture. He went as ambassador to the Popes Calixtus 
III. and Pius II., and his speech to Pius II. drew tears 
of joy from the Pope's eyes. He spent some time in 
Venice, studied at Padua, bought books in Florence, 
rambled unaccompanied through the city, and attended 
lectures as a simple student.^ However, Gigli can have 
had, in his early days, no expectation that the name 
of Worcester would become more familiar to him. 
He found employment at the Roman Court in the 
department of finance, and in course of time was sent 
to England as Papal collector. Perhaps he came early 
in 1472, when English affairs were quieter after the 
death of Henry VI. At all events he had been in 
England long enough to make himself acceptable in 
1478, for in that year he was collated to a canonry at 
Wells, and on loth March, 1479, was made rector of 
St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, London. In 1480 he 
preached at the opening of a synod at London, and 
in eloquent language laid before the assembled clergy 
the needs of the Pope. Sixtus IV., he informed them, 
had converted all his plate and jewels into money, for 
the defence of Rhodes against the Turk. He asked 
them, in a voice tremulous with sobs, if they would not 
come to the aid of the Holy See in its struggle against 
the enemies of Christendom.^ His oratory, however, 
was thrown away, for his audience had listened to 
similar pleadings before, and the days of crusading 

^ Vespasiano di Bisticci, Vite di Uomini IlUistri, 403. 
2 Wilkihs, Concilia, iii., 613, where the name is printed ♦* Joannes de 
Sighs ". 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 207 

zeal were past and gone. But though he did not help 
the Pope, he seems to have increased his own reputa- 
tion, and in 1482 was made Archdeacon of London 
and Prebendary of Hoxton in St. Paul's Cathedral.^ 

Gigli no longer regarded himself as a foreigner, but 
made England his home, and sought a career as a man 
of letters. Learning and letters had not flourished 
during the Wars of the Roses, and there was great 
need of a literary revival, which Gigli was quite willing 
to further. He began in the region of theology, and 
at the request of the Bishop of Lincoln wrote a little 
treatise about "The Observance of Lent," which he 
sent to Peter Carmelianus, who passed on the manu- 
script to Richard Fox, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, 
one of the King's Privy Council.^ Gigli was so well 
satisfied with the success of his first venture that he 
aimed at a more ambitious undertaking. He composed 
an Epithalamium, or marriage song, to celebrate the 
hopes of peace which were awakened by the union of 
the two Roses in the wedding of Henry VII. and 
Elizabeth of York on i8th January, i486. This poem 
he sent to Fox with a letter written in the approved 
style of the Italian humanists. He praises Fox for 
his love of literature, and laments that so few follow 
his example. He quotes the stock instances of devo- 
tion to letters in the heroes of classical antiquity, and 
throws in David, Solomon, and the Fathers of the 
Latin Church ^'to suit the greater seriousness of the 
English mind. He assures Fox that he will find nothing 

^Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum, i., 61. 
^Gigli's letter addressed "Domino Ricardo, Regio Secretario," is 
in the British Museum, Harleian MSS., 336. 



2o8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

in the poem that is not Christian in tone and true 
in fact, nothing that is unbecoming to the gravity of 
a statesman ; if any one should say that a marriage 
song is not a fitting theme for an ecclesiastic, he answers 
that Our Lord dignified the marriage of Cana by His 
presence. " Why," he adds, " should not an ecclesi- 
astic, in a time of general rejoicing, utter his congratu- 
lations about an event on which depends the prosperity 
of the people and the lasting peace of a great nation ? " 
He leaves it to Fox's judgment whether or no the poem 
is worthy of the King's attention. 

The poem itself, consisting of some five hundred 
lines of Latin hexameters, is neither better nor worse, 
as poetry, than the mass of such like complimentary 
verses ; but it differs from them remarkably in that 
its main object is not personal, but political. It does 
not so much extol the valour of Henry VII. or praise 
the beauty of Elizabeth, as rejoice over the end of a 
period of civil warfare and celebrate the coming glories 
of a time of peace. In this it corresponded to the 
needs of the English people, and to the policy of the 
Pope, who did his utmost to help Henry VI I. in secur- 
ing his hold upon the English crown. Gigli's aspirations 
for the future of England do him great credit, and show 
that he had a real interest in the welfare of the country 
of his adoption. It is probable that Henry VII. valued 
such an expression of opinion, and was glad to wel- 
come Gigli as a man who would help to revive in 
England a taste for literature.^ 

1 The poem is in the British Museum, Harleian MSS., 366. It was 
first noticed by Pauli, Geschichte von England, v., 529, where a few 
lines are quoted ; afterwards by Balzani, Un' amhasciata inglese a 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 209 

Gigli's reputation as an accomplished scholar was 
now established, and in 1487 he was sent to Calais as 
" a man excellently skilled in things both human and 
divine " to show the French envoys a sample of the 
oratory which England could command.^ For this 
service he was rewarded by the archdeaconry of 
Gloucester in February, 1484, and he thus became 
connected with his future diocese.^ He was employed 
by Pope Innocent VIII. to publish an indulgence in 
1489,^ and this seems to have been the last display of 
his activity in England. Soon afterwards he went to 
Rome as the permanent representative of the English 

Roma in Archivio Romano, iv. A still longer extract is given by 
Gairdner, Memorials of Henry VII., pref. Iviii. I hope that Count 
Ugo Balzani will shortly edit it entirely, with more information about 
Gigli than I have been able to discover. Meanwhile I give two extracts 
which may serve as a specimen : — 

Discidii nunc finis adest, si munere tanto 
Dignos esse velis votisque intendere justis, 
Eboracensis superest clarissima virgo, 
Virtutis nee stirpis egens, pulcherrima toto 
Corpore cui facies grato suffusa nitore 
Splendet matura nondum formosa juventa. 



Non mirum est igitur cognatas jungere dextras 
Si cupiat quocunque jacent subsidere regna 
Dum tamen ipse velis : sed te non gloria tantum 
Ista juvat quantum tranquille reddere paci 
Et patriam stabili componere federe tandem, 
Et bella et cunctas bellorum avertere causas, 
Armaque civili rorantia sanguine multo 
Tollere perpetuo finemque imponere cladi. 
O pietas immensa viri, populusque beatus 
Talis cui presit divino munere princeps. 

^ Bernard Andre in Gairdner's Memorials, 56. 

'Browne Willis, Cathedrals, i., 666. 

'Wharton, Anglia Sacra, i., 538. 

14 



2IO HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

king, to keep watch over England's interests and 
transact English business at the Papal Court. Another 
of his duties was to welcome English ambassadors 
when they came for special purposes, provide for their 
reception with due decorum, instruct them in the 
necessary formalities of procedure, and arrange for 
their entertainment. In 1592 he was well known in 
Rome, and is called " orator antiquus regis Anglie "} In 
that year he received the Bishop of Durham, and again 
in 1496 Robert Sherborne, Archdeacon of Buckingham,^ 
both of whom came as ambassadors from England. 

Probably by this time it became obvious to Henry 
VII. that the diplomatic intercourse between Eng- 
land and Rome was not likely to diminish, and that 
it was desirable for his representative at the Papal 
Court to be a man of some position. The possession 
of a bishopric would confer upon its holder both dignity 
and income. Pope Alexander VI. made no objection to 
this arrangement, and by bull dated 30th August, 1497, 
appointed Gigli Bishop of Worcester. He received the 
temporalities on 5 th December,^ and was enthroned 
by proxy on 12th April, 1498. He did not long enjoy 
his promotion, but died at Rome on 25th August, 
1498, and was buried in the English College there.^ 

^ Burchard's Diarmm, ed. Thuasne, i., 490. Burchard was the 
Papal master of ceremonies. 

^Id., ii., 289. ^Rymer, Fcedera, xii., 657, 670. 

^ His epitaph is given by Thomas, Survey of the Cathedral Church 
of Worcester, 202 : " Joanni Gigho, Lucen . Vigornien . Episcopo, 
juris utriusque consul . consummato virtutis viro, serenissimi Henrici 
septimi Anglie Regis apud Pontificem Oratori Sylvester Regia liber- 
alite Dignitatis successor Patrueli B. M. posuit. Obiit anno salutis 
1498, mense Augusti, etatis Ixiiii." 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 211 

Gigli's death had not given Henry VII. time to 
judge how his experiment would succeed. He had 
found the usefulness of an agent in Rome who was 
thoroughly versed in the ways of the Papal Court, and 
had been fortunate enough to command the services 
of a man who had a thorough knowledge of English 
affairs. There was no one with the same qualifications 
fitted to replace him ; but Gigli had a^nephew who had 
probably helped him in his business, and was well 
spoken of as a capable man. This nephew, Silvestro 
dei Gigli, son of Giovanni's brother Niccolo, was also 
a Lucchese. He was born in 1463, and had followed 
in his uncle's steps ; he studied law with some dis- 
tinction, entered his uncle's household and knew all 
his affairs.^ No doubt Silvestro pointed out these 
qualifications to the King and the Pope, who agreed 
that he should carry on his uncle's work. That he 
should receive at the age of thirty-five the reward 
which his uncle only earned at the age of sixty-three 
shows the increased importance of the post of English 
representative at Rome. It was certainly a rare piece of 
good luck to fall to the lot of a young and untried man. 

As Giovanni had died at the Papal Court, the Pope, 
according to ancient usage, claimed the right to ap- 
point his successor, and did so with due solemnity. 
" On 24th December, 1498, the Pope, calling to himself 
the cardinals who were present, by their advice set 
over the See of Worcester — which was deprived of the 
consolation of a shepherd by the death of Giovanni dei 
Gigli of good memory, ambassador of the most serene 

^ Memorie per servire all Istoria del Ducato di Lucca, ix,, 140. 



212 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

King of England at the apostolic seat, who demised at 
the aforesaid seat in the month of August last past — 
the reverend father Silvestro dei Gigli, of Lucca, nephew 
of the deceased bishop aforesaid." ^ After this the King, 
on 7th March, 1499, confirmed him in the temporalities 
of the see, calling him " archipresbyter Luccensis, cau- 
sarum nostrarum in curia Romana sollicitator," ^ and 
he was enthroned by proxy on i6th April. 

Bishop Sylvester lived for some time at Rome, where 
he saw strange doings in the Borgia Court. In No- 
vember, 1499, he was present at the baptism of Rodrigo, 
son of the Pope's daughter, the famous Lucrezia.^ He 
saw the unexpected death of Alexander VI., and was 
one of the guardians of the conclave at which his 
successor, Pius III., was elected,^ in September, 1503. 
Pius only survived his election for a month ; so Gigli 
witnessed another election, conducted on purely politi- 
cal grounds, and saw the new Pope, Julius II., complete 
the downfall of Cesare Borgia. From these high 
matters he was called to the duties of his office by 
the arrival of an embassy to tender England's obedience 
to Julius, in May, 1504.^ At the end of the year the 
Pope sent a token of his gratitude to the English 
King in the shape of a Papal cap and sword, and 
Gigli was chosen to bear them to England. He pre- 
sented them to the King at Richmond with due pomp 
on Christmas Day, 1504.^ 

It might have been expected that Bishop Sylvester, 
finding himself in England, would have paid some at- 

^Burchard, ii., 501. ^xhomas, Appendix, 130. 

3 Burchard, ii., 576. ^Id., iii., 266. 

^ Id., 355. ° Bernard Andre in Gairdner, Memorials, 86. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 213 

tention to his diocese, but his Register does not show 
that this was the case. He did not ordain in person, 
and the documents of the see still run in the name of 
his vicar-general. Perhaps he thought it unwise to 
disturb existing arrangements, which went smoothly. 
Perhaps he felt that his position was purely secular, 
and that his wisest course was to emphasise this fact. 
He seems during his stay in England to have remained 
about the court, where probably he was able to make 
himself useful in many ways, especially by organising 
ceremonies after the Italian model. In July, 1508, he 
was sent to receive and escort into London the Am- 
bassador of the Emperor, Andrea de Brugo.^ Early 
in 1 5 1 2 Gigli returned to Rome as chief of the English 
Ambassadors to the Lateran Council, which met to 
settle the affairs of the Church, and separated, after 
doing so to its own satisfaction, just on the verge of 
the great outbreak in Germany which changed for ever 
the fortunes of Western Christendom. Gigli, however, 
did not take much interest in the council, but was 
more in his element in secular politics, where he was 
annoyed to find himself occupying only a subordinate 
position. With the accession of Henry VII I. there had 
come a further increase of English diplomacy ; and 
the young King committed the conduct of affairs at 
Rome to a man whom he knew and trusted, Christopher 
Bainbridge, who was sent to Rome in November, 1 509, 
and was paid for his services by the revenues of the See 
of York. Bainbridge was made a cardinal in March, 
1 571, and occupied a position which Gigli could not 

1 Andre in Gairdner, Memorials, 122. 



214 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

hope to rival. ^ But the Englishman could not easily 
learn the courtly manners of Italians, and Bainbridge 
was unpopular in Rome through his overbearing con- 
duct.^ Gigli set himself to prove to the King and 
Wolsey that he could serve their interests better than 
Bainbridge, and Bainbridge resented his meddling. 
No love was lost between them, and on 20th May, 
1 5 14, Bainbridge wrote to the King accusing Gigli of 
plotting with the French Ambassador and betraying 
his master's secrets. "Your orator's secretary," he 
wrote, " showed unto a right credible person that his 
master, with the said Protector of France, did triumph 
and make good cheer together, using these words : 
* Let these barbarous people of France and England 
every one kill other, what should we care therefore, so 
we have their money to make merry withal here?' 
Sundry cardinals, and many other great men also, 
have showed me that they marvel your Grace will 
use such an infamous person to be your orator, who 
is named here universally the falsary orator of 
England." ^ 

The quarrel was cut short by the death of Cardinal 
Bainbridge, 15th July, and it was believed by his two 
English secretaries, William Burbank and Richard 
Pace, that he had died of poison. Suspicion fell 



1 There is an account of him by Mr. Gairdner in Dictionary of 
National Biography, ii., 433. 

2 Paris de Grassis, Diarlum, quoted in History of the Papacy, iv., 
276 : " Et dicitur praesertim quod de facili non fiat Anglicus Cardinalis, 
quia nimis se opprobriose habent in ilia dignitate, quod visum est mani- 
feste in Cardinali nuper defuncto Anglico". Written in 1515. 

^ Ellis, Original Letters, second series, i., 226, etc. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 215 

upon a priest attached to his household, one Rinaldo 
of Modena, who had formerly been a member of the 
household of the Bishop of Worcester. A post-mortem 
examination was held, and the doctor reported that 
the right lobe of the heart was decayed,^ which in their 
opinion was a clear sign of poisoning. Rinaldo was 
committed to prison and confessed to the crime ; he 
had bought the poison at Spoleto, had administered it 
on Corpus Christi Day (20th June) in a pottage ; next 
day the cardinal took to his bed and never rose again.^ 
He further stated that he acted at the suggestion of 
the Bishop of Worcester, who gave him fifteen ducats, 
saying, "If we do not get rid of this cardinal we shall 
never live in peace ". Rinaldo confessed also to other 
crimes in the hope of saving his life, but was told that 
he could not be pardoned for murder. Next day, 26th 
August, he mortally wounded himself with a small 
knife which he had managed to conceal, and before 
his death withdrew his charge against the Bishop of 
Worcester, but refused to give any account of the 
motive of his crime. This withdrawal was not believed 
by Pace and Burbank, nor by popular opinion in Rome.^ 
Pope Leo X., however, seems to have been satisfied, for 
no steps were taken against Gigli, who said mass on 
3rd September, before a gathering of cardinals and 
ambassadors, in thankfulness for the conclusion of 

1 " Et inventum est cor ejus vitiatum in dextra parte cordis," quoted 
in Creighton's History of Papacy, iv., 207. 

2 The confession of Rinaldo is given in Lettres de Louis XII, iv., 

343- 

^Burbank's letters to Henry VIII. are in Ellis, Original Letters, 

first series, i., 99-108 ; Pace to Wolsey, id., third series, i., 177. 



21 6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

a peace between England and France.^ Gigli had his 
own answer to the charge. Rinaldo, he said, had been 
in his service three months in England, and was dis- 
missed as intractable ; he was always mad and almost 
a brute. He had stolen from Bainbridge, and had 
poisoned him to escape discovery ; he had falsely ac- 
cused him of being an accomplice in the hope of saving 
himself.^ Pace, however, was not satisfied with these 
pleas, and the judges were of opinion that Gigli should 
be imprisoned and tortured to make him confess. 
There was a difficulty in proceeding thus against the 
ambassador of the English King, and the Pope and 
Pace both agreed in referring the matter to Henry 
VI 11.^ By this time Pace and Gigli were at daggers 
drawn, and each complained of the other ; but Pace, 
though he might be mistaken, had no personal motive, 
and could write : " The Bishop of Worcester's labours 
and mine be very different in the controversy depend- 
ing betwixt him and me : for he doth seek nothing 
but favours and procureth the same by effusion of 
money and large promises. I do desire nothing but 
equity and justice." 

Henry VIII. does not seem to have troubled himself 
about the matter. Gigli had a friend in England in 
the person of Andreas Ammonius, another Italian who 
was employed as the King's secretary, who forwarded 
his pleas to Wolsey.^ Wolsey had benefited by the 

1 Brewer's Calendar of Henry VIII. 's Reign, i., No. 5,387. 

2/t?.. No. 5,365. 

3 Pace to Henry VIII., 25th September, in Ellis, Original Letters^ 

first series, i., 108. 

^Calendar, i., No. 5,4491 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 217 

death of Bainbridge, whom he succeeded in the See of 
York, and whom he hoped to succeed as cardinal. 
There was a good deal of business to be done at Rome 
in consequence, and Gigli was likely to do it expediti- 
ously when he knew how much depended on Wolsey's 
favour. Pace diligently guarded the possessions of 
Bainbridge, which Wolsey wanted to convert to his 
own use. So Wolsey backed Gigli ; and when the 
English King showed no desire for further inquiry, the 
Pope felt himself absolved from further trouble in a 
scandalous affair. Gigli was acquitted, and Wolsey 
congratulated him on his acquittal ; nay, he promised 
to punish those who had slandered him.^ Pace was 
excepted, and Gigli magnanimously undertook to for- 
give him. The cause of Bainbridge's murder was no 
further investigated, and Gigli's complicity was not 
proved. But it must in fairness be admitted that it 
was Wolsey who hushed the matter up rather than the 
Pope. It was not till 9th January, 1515, that Leo X. 
sent his formal acquittal, founded on the exalted 
character of Gigli and the insufficiency of the evidence 
against him.^ In February Gigli wrote that he and 
Pace were fully reconciled, and recommended his late 
enemy for a prebend on the ground of his good 
services.^ 

The death of Bainbridge, whether brought about by 
Gigli or not, certainly added to Gigli's importance in 
Rome, where he became the confidential agent of 
Wolsey, and did his best to further his ambitious 
schemes. If the charge of his complicity in the 
murder of Bainbridge rested on no better foundation 

^Ca/^nrfar, i., 5,464-65. ^Id.,ii.,io. * Id., 151, 



21 8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

than did Bainbridge's accusation that he was false to 
English interests, it was not worthy of credence ; for 
Gigli threw himself into Wolsey's policy and served 
him faithfully. In July, 15 15, the Pope thought that 
his zeal deserved some reward, and recommended him 
for a richer bishopric ; ^ but Wolsey did not judge it 
wise that another important see should be saddled 
with a non-resident bishop, and Gigli's gentle hints 
for further promotion were unheeded. Gigli was made 
to work hard to procure Wolsey's creation as cardinal 
and afterwards as legate ; and in July, 15 16, he wrote 
sadly to his friend Ammonius complaining of Wolsey's 
ingratitude. " He is profuse of good wishes," he writes, 
" but he could have made me Bishop of Lincoln as 
easily as give me a horse." ^ In November he again 
complains to his friend that it is impossible to satisfy 
the outrageous demands which Wolsey makes of the 
Pope, and sadly adds, " You and Wolsey have caused 
me to tell the Pope a thousand lies".^ In August, 
1 5 17, Ammonius died of the plague, and Gigli was 
appointed to succeed him as Papal collector in Eng- 
land, an office which he discharged by deputy as he 
did his bishopric* By the end of 15 18 Gigli aspired 
to the cardinalate,^ but his suggestion does not seem 
to have obtained Wolsey's support. In 15 19 arose 
the momentous question of the election to the imperial 
crown, a part for which Henry VIII. was vain enough 
to think himself fitted, and the important duty of 

'^Calendar, ii., 761. 

^Id., ii., 194: " Sempre e stato donator di bon giorni ma havrebbe 
potuto farmi cosi vescovo di Lincolna quanto darmi uno cavallo". 
^Id., 2,579. *Id., 3,657. Ud., 4,442. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 219 

sounding the Pope on the matter was entrusted by 
Wolsey to GigH, in one of the most outspoken letters 
which that great diplomatist ever wrote. ^ He had the 
unpleasant task of conveying to the Pope a letter of 
franker scolding than popes generally received, when 
Henry's endeavour came to nothing. ^ 

It is interesting to know that Gigli had to obtain 
leave both from Henry VIII. and Leo X. before he 
could take a few days' holiday in November for the 
purpose of visiting his relatives in Lucca.^ On his 
return he was again overwhelmed with business, and 
in March, 1520, Wolsey was so satisfied with his long 
service that he urged Leo X. to create him cardinal ; * 
but the Pope did not consider that Gigli possessed 
the qualities necessary for so high an office, and made 
up his mind not to promote him unless he had some 
overwhelming reason for conciliating the English 
King.^ Gigli waited eagerly for the next creation, 
and bewailed his fate when he was passed over. He 
pestered the cardinals till the Pope almost made up his 
mind to tell him openly, that he was not prepared to in- 
cur the infamy which his creation would entail.^ In fact 
Gigli was tolerated in Rome, but that was all. Henry 
and Wolsey might forget that he had been accused 
of murder; but Leo had a longer memory, and had 
certain vague notions of decorum. However the im- 
portunity of Gigli did not trouble the Pope long. In 
April, 1 52 1, he lay dying; and Cardinal Campeggio 
did not wait till he was dead before writing to Wolsey 

^Martene and Durand, Amplissima Collectio, iii., 1,285. 

2 If/., 1,301. ^Calendar, iii., 444-516. 

^/(f., 600, 647, 651. ^/fi., 853. 6 M, 1,080. 



220 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

to beg for the see which was soon to become vacant. 
Gigli died on i8th April, and was buried next day.^ 

Campeggio's entreaties were not heeded, for Henry 
aspired to use the revenues of Worcester to bind to 
his side a greater man than Campeggio. On 21st 
May he wrote to Cardinal Medici, the Pope's cousin 
and principal adviser, to offer him the vacant see, " a 
gift all unequal to his merits ". ^ But as Medici was 
already Archbishop of Florence and Narbonne, and 
held numerous other lucrative posts, he felt some 
shame at openly accepting another bishopric. He 
therefore offered to resign Worcester in favour of a 
trustworthy man, Geronimo Ghinucci, who was then 
in London as Papal Nuncio, "with certain stipula- 
tions as to the revenues," which doubtless meant that 
Ghinucci, in return for his compliance, was to pay him 
a pension out of the see,^ an arrangement to which 
Wolsey could not object, as he himself was in receipt 
of a similar pension from a see in Spain. Ghinucci 
at once took Worcester under his protection and 
complained to Wolsey of interference on the part 
of the vicar of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who 
wished to visit the monks of the Cathedral, and ex- 
communicated them on their refusal to acknowledge 
his right. Doubtless Wolsey vindicated the rights 
of the non-resident bishop not to do his duty, and 
repressed the zeal of an unauthorised intruder who 
attempted to do it for him. But though Medici was 
willing to resign, the process was slow. The death of 
Leo X. in December, and the election of Hadrian VI., 

'^Calendar, iii., 1,247. ^Id., 1,298. 

'Ghinucci to Wolsey, 12th July. Id., 1,410. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 221 

who was absent in Spain at the time, put difficulties 
in the way. It was not till 26th September, 1522, that 
Hadrian's bull was issued for Ghinucci's appointment.^ 
Thus Worcester only just escaped being able to reckon 
a Pope amongst its bishops ; for Medici, who after- 
wards became Pope Clement VII., was not actually 
bishop, but only administrator of the see. 

The appointment of Ghinucci indicated that the 
See of Worcester was made over to Italians, beyond 
the possibility of escape. The arrangement created 
no difficulties in England. The clergy of the diocese 
had grown accustomed to it; and the King still needed 
helpers at the Roman Court. In Ghinucci he found a 
man of greater mark than Gigli, a man well versed in 
the business of the Curia, and personally acceptable 
to the Pope. Geronimo Ghinucci was of noble birth, 
a native of Siena, brought up from his youth in the 
Curia. He was first a Canon of Siena, then a Clerk 
of the Papal Camera, or Treasury, at Rome, where he 
rose in 15 14 to the important post of Auditor. His 
labours in conducting the necessary steps for the sum- 
mons of the Vatican Council were rewarded by the 
Bishopric of Ascoli, conferred on him on 15 th October, 
15 12. His theological attainments were such that 
when proceedings were instituted against Luther at 
Rome, in July, 15 18, Ghinucci and Prierias were 
appointed as judges in the cause, which, however, 
soon passed out of their hands.^ In May, 1520, Leo X. 
was alarmed at the boldness of Wolsey's policy, about 

^ Ghinucci to Wolsey, 12 July, 2,569. 

^ Ughelli, Italia Sacra, i., 471 ; Ciaconius, Vita Pontificum et Cardi- 
nalium, iii., 569. 



222 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

which he was not consulted, and named Ghinucci as 
his nuncio to England, that he might learn what 
had happened at the Field of the Cloth of Gold.^ It 
was while Ghinucci was in England on this mission 
that the proposal was made that he should receive the 
See of Worcester, and he found means to make himself 
acceptable to Wolsey, promising that " the bishopric 
and all things belonging to it should be at his com- 
mand ".^ Apparently he had to go and seek the new 
Pope, Hadrian VI., in Spain, to secure his consent, 
for he wrote to Wolsey from Saragossa in May, 1522.^ 
Thence he went to his duties in Rome, and contented 
himself, so far as his diocese was concerned, with look- 
ing keenly after its temporalities. He had need to 
practise economy, for he was saddled with a pension to 
be paid to another Italian friend of Wolsey, Giovanni 
Matteo Ghiberti, Bishop of Verona.* 

In nothing was Wolsey's greatness' more clearly 
shown than in his knowledge of men, and his capacity 
of attaching them to himself He did not stop to win 
their affection, but he demanded and received their 
entire obedience. Ghinucci is an instance in point ; 
though bred in the Papal Court it is doubtful if he 
served the Papacy with the same diligence that he 
served Wolsey, who became more and more exacting 
as difficulties gathered round his path. It would be 
tedious to unravel all the threads of the diplomatic 
web, which Ghinucci for six years was employed in 
weaving and unweaving. It is more interesting to 
trace the help which he gave to Wolsey in his schemes 

1 Brewer, Calendar, Hi., 780. ^Id., 1,916. 

^Id., 2,242. ^Id., iv., 4,589. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 223 

for the revival of English learning. In May, 1526, 
Ghinucci was commissioned to seek in Rome for 
scholars who would come to England to teach in Ox- 
ford, which Wolsey hoped to regenerate by his great 
foundation of Cardinal College. He was ordered also 
to seek for books and procure transcripts, especially 
of Greek manuscripts, both in the Vatican Library 
and that of Venice, and he sent catalogues of both 
that Wolsey might make his choice.^ 

In December of the same year Ghinucci was ordered 
to undertake a more laborious task, that of envoy to 
Charles V. to arrange the difficulties which had arisen 
between him and Francis I. of France respecting the 
Treaty of Madrid. He first visited the French Court 
at Poissy, and then sought the Emperor at Valladolid.^ 
He did not prosper in the main design of his embassy, 
for war went on in Italy. He escaped the horrors of 
the sack of Rome by the troops of Bourbon in May, 
1527, and he did not see the Papacy reduced to the 
lowest point of helplessness and the Pope a prisoner 
in the hands of the Imperial generals. He remained 
in Spain till July, 1529, when he left for Paris, where 
he received the momentous news of the fall of Wolsey. 
Already Ghinucci, like everybody else in Henry VIII.'s 
service, had been employed in the abominable business 
of the King's divorce ; and upon Wolsey's disgrace 
Henry turned to Ghinucci for help. On 5th October 
he was sent to the Pope to maintain the right of the 
English King to change his wives at his pleasure.^ It 
was his business as a canonist to prove conclusively to 

^Brewer, Calendar, iii., 2,158, 2,181-86, 2,272. 
^Id., 2,831, etc. 3/^,^5^g88. 



224 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the Pope that it was unlawful for a man to marry his 
brother's wife, and for this purpose we find him ransack- 
ing libraries, conferring with Jewish Rabbis, and im- 
proving his knowledge of patristic theology. This 
strictly utilitarian pursuit of the writings of Basil, 
Chrysostom, and Gregory Nazianzen, together with 
devices for inducing theologians of the Italian uni- 
versities to give their opinions in the King's favour, 
occupied Ghinucci's energies for some time,^ and he 
did this dirty work so much to the King's satisfaction 
that Henry VIII. in November pressed the Pope to 
make him a cardinal.^ The request was received on 
19th May, 1532,^ but met with no answer at the 
time, as the Pope's policy was under the influence of 
Charles V. Ghinucci continued to do his best to 
further Henry VIII.'s divorce, but was unsuccessful. 
Thwarted by the Pope, Henry went his own way, and 
the English Church withdrew from the jurisdiction of 
the Roman See. 

One of the acts of the memorable Parliament of 
1534 deprived of their bishoprics the two Italians 
who were then holders of English Sees, Campeggio, 
Bishop of Salisbury, and Ghinucci. Great as was the 
abuse, and excellent as was its abolition, it is difficult to 
assign the actual remedy to any higher motive than 
the desire to punish Campeggio for not furthering the 
King's divorce, when he acted as legate in England 
in 1529. The fact was obvious that both Campeggio 
and Ghinucci owed their sees to the personal action 

1 The letters of himself and his companion, Croke, are to be found 
in Pocock, Records of the Divorce, i., 480, etc. ; ii., 617, etc. 
^Calendar, iv., 6,735. ^ Pocock, ii., 263. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 225 

of the English King, who only awoke to the evils of 
non-resident bishops when it suited his own purposes. 
Even so, the proper means of dealing with non-resi- 
dence would have been by a Synod of the Bishops of 
the Province of Canterbury. But Henry was not con- 
cerned either with propriety or precedent : he wished to 
show the Pope and the Curia that his power had no 
bounds, and that an obedient Parliament would throw 
a veil of legality over anything he chose to do. The 
act of Parliament laid down no general principles, 
and had no general application. It merely set forth 
that the King had chosen to make Campeggio and 
Ghinucci bishops, and now chose to deprive them of 
their office. It recited laws against granting benefices 
to aliens, and against sending money out of the king- 
dom, and proceeded : " Notwithstanding which whole- 
some laws, the King's highness, being a Prince of great 
benignity and liberality, having no knowledge of the 
same laws, hath nominated, preferred, and promoted 
Laurence Campeggio, Bishop of Salisbury, and Hie- 
rome, a stranger born out of the King's realm and 
dominion, to the See of Worcester ; which said two 
bishops, neither regarding their duties to Almighty 
God nor their cures of their said bishoprics, ever since 
or for the most part of the time, have been and yet be 
resident at the See of Rome, or elsewhere beyond the 
sea, far out of and from any of the King's dominions ; 
by reason whereof the great hospitality, divine service, 
teaching and preaching, the laws and examples of 
good living, have been for many years past not only 
withdrawn, decayed, hindered, and minished, but also 
great quantity of gold, silver, and treasure, have been 

15 



226 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

yearly taken and conveyed out of the realm, to its 
great impoverishment ; In CONSIDERATION WHEREOF 
be it enacted that the said two Sees of Salisbury and 
Worcester from henceforth shall be taken, reputed, 
and accounted in the law, to be utterly void and desti- 
tute of any incumbent, and the King may appoint as 
though the bishops had died." There was a proviso 
that if either of the bishops, within four months, came 
into residence, and took an oath to be King's true 
liegemen, and observe the laws of the realm, they 
might retain their bishoprics.^ The act is an excellent 
example of Henry's legislation, and of his magnificent 
audacity in finding good reasons for doing right in an 
unjust and tyrannical fashion. 

Ghinucci's connexion with Worcester thus came to 
an end, but he does not fade from history. Henry felt 
that he had behaved badly in thus summarily deposing 
a man whom he had only a year before recommended 
for the cardinalate — a man who had served him only 
too faithfully. Even a year later the Imperial envoy 
at Rome wrote of him : " He hath hitherto been a 
chief enemy of the Queen's cause ".^ As some com- 
pensation for this treatment he was allowed a pension 
of 1,400 ducats, which, however, do not seem to have 
been paid with much regularity, as in November, 1534, 
he wrote to remind Cromwell of the King's promises, 
and signed his letter " Hie. Wigornien," which he 
corrected into " Hie. Auditor Camere ".^ However, 
his connexion with England ultimately served him in 
good stead; for on 20th May, 1535, he was created 

1 Statutes of the Realm, 25 Henry VHI., c. 27. 
^Calendar, viii., 786. ^Id., vii., 1,413. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 227 

cardinal by Paul III. at the same time as Bishop 
Fisher. Fisher's creation, at a time when he was in 
prison, was an unwise act on the part of the Pope, and 
cost the good bishop his head. Ghinucci's creation 
was probably due to a wish to appear impartial : if 
Fisher was chosen because he opposed Henry, Ghi- 
nucci was chosen because Henry had recommended 
him, and he was still regarded as the King's great 
supporter in Rome. 

We need not pursue Ghinucci's career farther. He 
died in Rome on 3rd July, 1541, and was buried in the 
Church of St. Clement.^ 

A point of considerable interest still remains to be 
considered : how was the business of the see ad- 
ministered under these non-resident bishops ? The 
answer is, that it was not neglected, but was done 
by deputy, and Worcester was not worse off because 
its bishop lived in Rome than were other English 
bishoprics, whose holders lived in London and were 
immersed in public business. Wolsey, for instance, held 
the Archbishopric of York for fifteen years, and during 
that time discharged all the duties of the entire body 
of Cabinet Ministers of our day. It cannot be said 
that Gigli and Ghinucci neglected their episcopal duties 
more than he did. Like him, they were engaged in 
secular affairs, and regarded the income of their sees 
as a payment for public services. Doubtless they 
exercised from a distance a general supervision over 
their dioceses, and were referred to about important 
points ; but the ordinary work was done by their 

^Ciaconius, VitcE Pontificuntf in., 470. 



228 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

deputies. Moreover, the system of delegation was so 
complete, that there was no chance for a resident 
deputy to assume the position and dignity of the 
distant bishop. The functions of the bishop were 
split up and divided so that each portion of them 
could be efficiently but formally discharged. To see 
how this was possible, it is worth while to consider the 
legal nature of the episcopal power. A bishop, like 
all priests, had an office committed to his charge, with 
a twofold power, the potestas ordinis and the potestas 
jurisdictionis^ i.e.^ the power of administering the sacra- 
ments, and the power, which flowed from this, of exer- 
cising jurisdiction. The potestas ordinis^ the exercise, 
that is, of the priestly functions especially reserved for 
a bishop, could only be entrusted to another bishop ; 
but the potestas jurisdictionis could be delegated to 
any properly qualified ecclesiastical judge. Hence a 
suffragan bishop and a vicar-general between them sup- 
plied- the place of an absent bishop, without diminish- 
ing the authority inherent in his office. When the 
bishop appeared, the suffragan's power ceased in his 
presence ; and diS judex ordinarius^ or ordinary, his juris- 
diction was superior to that of his vicar or delegate, 
which was derived from him. Hence when a bishop 
was absent, his suffiragan performed the episcopal 
functions of ordaining and confirming, but that was 
all ; the vicar-general, with the powers of commis- 
sary, did all the business part of the bishop's work 
— held spiritual courts and visitations, presented and 
inducted to livings, and such like. Another man, 
again, had the care of the temporalities of the see, 
leased farms, collected rents, and held manorial courts. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 229 

Each of these was responsible to the bishop, carried 
out his orders, and could be removed at his will. 
However long the bishop was absent, there was no 
diminution of the plenitude of his power or the integrity 
of his rights. 

It is worth while to gather together a few notices of 
the way in which these separate parts of the bishop's 
work were performed. The episcopal work proper 
was done by suffragan bishops, who took their titles 
chiefly from Oriental sees. It was one of the maxims 
of the Church never to acknowledge any diminution 
of its dominion. If some parts of Christendom 
had fallen into the hands of the unbelievers, so that 
Christian bishops could no longer live and labour 
therein, still the bishops were always in existence, 
ready to return when occasion offered. Meanwhile 
these bishops in partibus infidelium were ready to help 
their more fortunate brethren, whose sees were un- 
disturbed. Doubtless they were in most cases nomin- 
ated for Papal consecration by those whom they were 
meant to represent, and were paid by some benefice 
or other post, supplemented in some cases by a small 
money payment. The existence of these suffragan 
bishops was almost universal, and it was not only the 
non-resident Italians who made use of them. The 
Register of Bishop Morton shows that the ordinations 
of the years 1487, 1492, 1493 and 1497 were per- 
formed by suffragan bishops, two of whom were 
afterwards employed by his successors. Thus the 
substitution of an Italian for an English prelate did 
not make a very marked difference in the conduct of 
the business of the see. 



230 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Of these suffragan bishops little is known except 
their names, and in many cases the titles of their sees 
are hard to identify. The following list is tolerably 
complete : — 

1498. — Thomas Cornish, Bishop of Tenos. 

1498- 1 500. — Donatus Imolacensis Episcopus. 

1 501. — Ricardus Olonensis Episcopus. His name 
was Richard Wycherley, a Dominican of Warwick : 
he was employed by Bishop Morton in 1487 and 
1493. He died at Worcester in 1501, and was buried 
there in the Church of the Blackfriars.^ 

1503. — Edward Bishop of Gallipoli. 

1503-23. — Ralph Heylesden, a Franciscan, conse- 
crated 3rd March, 1503, Bishop of Ascalon.^ He 
received a pension of 150 gold ducats out of the 
see,^ and was instituted Vicar of Cropthorne on 15th 
October, 1508.* 

1524-26. — John, Bishop of Panada. 

1526-41. — Andrew Whitmay, Bishop of Chryso- 
polis, had been employed in the same office in 
1497, was master of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 
Gloucester.^ 

In like manner the legal part of the bishop's business 
always required an ecclesiastical judge, who bore the 
title of vicar-general. All that happened when the 
bishop was non-resident was that the vicar-general's 
powers were increased by a commission from the 

^Walcott in Notes and Queries, second series, ii., i. 

"Wadding, Annates Minorum, xv., 271. 

' Stubbs, Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, 146. 

^ Registrum Sylvestri de Gigliis. 

® Calendar of State Papers, vi., Appendix 5. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 231 

bishop empowering him to act in his stead. Docu- 
ments ran in the vicar-general's name, and he styled 
himself " Reverendi in Christo patris et domini. . . . 
Dei gratia Wigorniensis Episcopi, pro reverendo patre 
extra suam diocesim in remotis agente Vicarius in 
spiritualibus generalis." The following is a list of 
vicars-general during this period : — 

1487-1503. — Thomas Wodyngton, LL.D. He was 
already in office in the episcopate of Bishop Morton, 
and. was continued by Bishop Gigli. 

1503-4. — Thomas Alcock. 

1 504-1 1. — Robert Holdsworth, or Hallesworth. 

1511-18* — Thomas Hannibal, D.C.L., of Cambridge, 
Prebendary of Gevendall in the Church of York, 1 504.^ 
He was employed by Wolsey as a diplomatist, and was 
made Master of the Rolls in 1524. 

1518-22. — John Bell, educated at Balliol College, 
Oxford, Archdeacon of Gloucester, and Warden of 
the Collegiate Church of Stratford-on-Avon. He 
was employed by Henry VIII. in his divorce case, 
especially in the business of procuring from the Uni- 
versity of Oxford an opinion in favour of the King.^ 
In 1539 he succeeded Latimer as Bishop of Worcester, 
but resigned in 1543, and died at Clerkenwell in 1556.^ 

1522-32. Thomas Parker, Dean of the Collegiate 
Churches of Stafford and Tamworth, afterwards 
Chancellor of Salisbury. 

1532. — Thomas Bagarde, LL.D., appointed by 
Henry VIII. one of the Prebendaries of the Cathedral 
Church of Worcester, when it was refounded in 1541. 

1 Wood, AthencE Oxonienses, i., 654. "^Id., 584. 

'Thomas, Stirvey of the Cathedral Church of Worcester, 205. 



232 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

This sketch will suffice to show that the com- 
missioners of the absentee bishops were capable men, 
many of whom obtained promotion for their merits, 
while one of them was afterwards created Bishop of 
Worcester, and another only vacated his office to 
become a Prebendary of the Cathedral Church. 

Another point remains to be considered, the manage- 
ment of the temporalities of the see at a time when 
the bishop could exercise no personal supervision. Of 
course former bishops had employed agents for the 
collection of their rents, and all that now happened 
was that greater responsibility was thrown upon these 
agents, and probably men of some standing in the 
neighbourhood were chosen for the purpose, though 
on this point we have only scanty records. However, 
we know that in 1 523 Ghinucci appointed as supervisors 
of his lands John Gostewick, John Russell of Strensham, 
and Thomas Russell his son, with a salary of ;^ioo a 
year.^ The choice of such an important family as the 
Russells seems to show that the bishop intended his 
representative to have considerable power. Similarly 
the name that is preserved of the Bishop's Receiver- 
General, John Hornyold, is that of another well-known 
Worcestershire family. The business connected with 
the lands of the see was well and carefully transacted, 
though sometimes things did not go smoothly ; for we 
find that the collectors were disturbed by the conduct 
of Nicholas Poyntz, High Steward in Gloucestershire, 
who held courts, let lands, and took fines at his 
pleasure, so that the tenants refused to pay their rents, 
and £60 was lost in consequence.^ 

1 Calendar, iii., 2,843. ^Id„ 533, 1,874. 



THE ITALIAN BISHOPS OF WORCESTER 233 

Thus the system would seem to be as follows : The 
local agents collected the rents, and accounted for them 
to the Receiver-General, while matters of management 
were referred to the Supervisors, who probably acted 
as guardians of the bishop's rights and exercised the 
discretion which naturally rests with the owner of 
property. The Receiver- General accounted for his 
receipts to the bishop's agent in London, who would 
naturally be an Italian, such as the Papal collector, 
who would have means of sending the money to Rome, 
and would act as the bishop's banker in England. An 
account of John Hornyold as Receiver-General for the 
year from Michaelmas, 1532, to Michaelmas, 1533, is 
preserved in the Public Record Office. It shows that 
the receipts for the year amount to ;^975 17s. lod. ; 
and we should probably be justified in multiplying this 
sum by twelve to obtain its equivalent at the present 
day. The expenses of management and collection 
are certainly moderate. Sir George Throckmorton 
receives ;^io as High Steward in Worcestershire and 
Warwickshire ; Walter Knight, as Supervisor, receives 
only £$, and John Hornyold, as Receiver-General, 
£16. The Deputy Steward has £^ los. ; the Auditor, 
£$ I OS. ; the Warden of the Palace and Jailer, £2 
I2S. ; and the Apparitor-General £1 13s. I4d. Alto- 
gether the salaries paid to Englishmen only amount 
to £44 5s. 4d.^ The Italian officials were paid at a 
much higher rate ; for Sylvester Darius, who was 
Papal collector in England and looked after the politi- 

^ The Receiver-General's Account of the Bishopric of Worcester 24 
to 25 of Henry VIII. is to be found in State Papers, Henry VIII.; 
Calendar, vol. vi,, No. 1,175. 



234 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

cal interests of Ghinucci, received £^^ 6s. 8d. from the 
rectory of Hullendon, and lived rent free in the bishop's 
house in London. 

The detailed accounts of the maintenance of prisoners 
in the jail, which formed part of the Bishop's Palace 
in Worcester, show that a prisoner was fed for a farthing 
a day ; and the sum thus spent in alms amounted to 
£6 1 5s. id. Repairs to the Palace at Worcester and 
Hartlebury cost £i2 i6s. lod. ; and the expenses of 
the audit were £S 13s. gd. The Bishop's Proctor- 
General in London, Antonio Bonvixi, had already 
drawn upon the receiver for ;^200 ; so that ^703 6s. gd. 
was still due to the bishop, who had only spent £yo lis. 
out of his large income within the limits of his diocese. 



235 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER.^ 

I MUST own to a desire for a fuller recognition of the 
fact that English history is at the bottom a provincial 
history. This truth is chiefly left to be exhibited by 
novelists and poets. The historian and the archae- 
ologist investigate with care the separate origins of the 
early kingdoms, the steps by which they came under 
the overlordship of the West Saxon kings, and their 
incorporation into a consolidated kingdom under the 
Norman successors of the West Saxon line. But at 
this point they generally cease their inquiries. The 
history of the central kingdom, the progress of the 
central administration, becomes so important and so full 
of interest that it absorbs all else. It is true that curious 
customs are noted by the archaeologist, and that par- 
ticular institutions force themselves into notice. But 
the vigorous undercurrent of a strong provincial life 
in different parts of England is seldom seriously con- 
sidered by historians. Yet the moment that EngHsh 
life is approached from the imaginative side, it is this 
strong provincial life that attracts attention. Our 
great novels are not English, but provincial. Our best- 
known types of character are developed within distant 
areas, and owe their expressiveness to local circum- 

1 An address delivered to the Archaeological Institute at Newcastle- 
on-Tyne. 



236 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

stances. "Squire Western," "Job Barton," "Mrs. 
Poyser," " Andrew Fairservice," Tennyson's Northern 
Farmer^ all live amid definite surroundings, and all 
are racy of the soil which bore them. I am sure that 
no better service can be rendered by an archaeological 
society to historical study than an attempt to bring the 
characteristic features of different parts of England 
into due prominence. Archaeology has done much for 
history in the past. It has ofttimes gathered evidence 
when written records are silent. It has pieced together 
fragments of the life of days of old when the human 
voice was still inaudible. It has settled disputed points 
by appeals to the eye on which there could be no 
doubt. In archaeology, as in all other sciences, there 
are those who say that almost all has been done that 
can be done. The records of stones have been ran- 
sacked, explored, classified and interpreted. Even if 
this were so, which is scarcely the case, there remain 
innumerable traces of the past, still unrecognised and 
unsuspected. Local character, habits, institutions, 
modes of thought and observation, are all the result of 
a long process, differing in different parts of England. 
They are only to be seen and understood by a sympa- 
thetic searcher and observer who looks upon each part 
of England in the light of its past, who sees that past, 
not only in ancient buildings, here and there, but on 
the whole face of the land, and in the hearts and lives 
of its inhabitants. I admit that this is no easy task. 
I admit that the results of such inquiry must at first 
be very hypothetical, and its conclusions tentative. 
But I think that the inquiry is well worth pursuing ; 
and it must be pursued speedily, if at all. 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 237 

Of this provincial history, no part of England pos- 
sesses clearer traces than does Northumberland. It 
has always held the same position in English history 
from its very beginning. It has always been a Border- 
land. It is true that the Border has varied in extent ; 
but whether it was great or small Northumberland 
has always been within it, and has generally formed 
its chiefest part. But we are met at the outset of our 
inquiry by the question, How came there to be a 
Border-land at all ? The answer to this question 
brings into prominence a part of English history which 
it is too much the fashion to neglect. The northern 
Border-land was the creation of the Romans, who 
mapped it out with accuracy and defined its limits. 
If I were asked. What permanent results are left of 
the Roman occupation of Britain ? I should answer 
that they marked out the territory between the Solway 
and the Clyde on the west, and the Tyne and the 
Forth on the east, to be a land of contention and de- 
bate, and that it remained with the character that 
they impressed upon it, down to the middle of last 
century. 

If we were so careful of our early history as are 
some folk, we would erect upon the wilds of Redeswire 
a statue of C. Julius Agricola as the founder of our 
Border State, the originator of the elaborate constitu- 
tion contained in the Leges Marchiarmn^ and other 
such like documents. It was Agricola who consolidated 
the Roman province in Britain, and first faced the 
difficulties of determining its limits. We know how 
in his first campaign he conquered the Ordovices and 
reduced the Isle of Mona. In his second campaign 



238 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

he brought into subjection the tribes of the western 
coast between the Dee and the Solway. He was 
careful to make good every step of his way, and keep 
open his communications. The trees fell before the 
axe of the legionary, and a rude but sufficient road 
was opened. Every night the Roman camp was 
occupied in some secure position, every day chronicled 
a steady advance of the invader. Permanent forts were 
raised in advantageous spots, and Agricola showed both 
the fire of a general and the sagacity of an explorer. 
From the Solway his forts most probably ran along 
the Eden and the Irthing to the Tyne. He found a 
narrow neck of land which he could occupy with ease, 
and by holding it secure his retreat. Then in his 
third campaign he advanced against ''new peoples," 
tribes who as yet had not felt the arms of Rome. He 
penetrated, it would seem, to the Tay, and then again 
paused to secure the territory which he had acquired. 
Again, he occupied a narrow neck of land between the 
Clyde and the Forth. This was occupied by forts " so 
that the foe," says Tacitus, " were driven almost into 
another island". I need not follow Agricola's course 
of conquest to the Grampian Hills, nor his voyage of 
circumnavigation, nor his projected reduction of Ire- 
land. Agricola's career came to an end, and with it 
came to an end any plan for extending Rome's sway 
over the whole of the British Isles. The only ques- 
tion which was considered by his successors was the 
boundary of the Roman Province. Should they take 
the northern or the southern line of forts by which 
Agricola had secured his conquests for the time? 
Rome's statesmanship and Rome's generalship never 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 239 

again contemplated the execution of Agricola's design 
of a complete conquest. For a time opinions wavered 
which boundary to choose. At length the line of forts 
along the Tyne and the Irthing was selected to mark 
the region south of which the " peace of Rome " was 
to be carefull}/ maintained. The mighty rampart, 
which Dr. Bruce has taught us to call the wall of 
Hadrian, was erected as a majestic symbol of the per- 
manence of Roman sway, as a dividing line between 
civilisation and barbarism. But this was done without 
prejudice to the future extension of the Roman occu- 
pation to Agricola's farther line of forts. The Roman 
province was to stretch in full security as far as the 
Tyne and the Solway. Rome's influence was to be 
felt as far as the Clyde and the Forth. Two great 
Roman roads, each with several branches, passed north- 
wards through the wall. Watling Street, with its 
supporting stations of Habitancum and Bremenium, 
traversed this county. The whole of Northumber- 
land and the Scottish Lowlands are covered with 
traces of Roman and British camps, which tell 
clearly enough the tale of Border warfare in the 
earliest days of our history. They tell of a long period 
of constant struggle, of troops advancing and retreat- 
ing, of a territory held with difficulty, of perpetual 
alternations of fortune. In the days of the Roman 
occupation the Border wears its distinctive features. 
Its future history is a changing repetition of the same 
details. 

But though we may generally gather that this was 
the history of the Roman Border, many puzzling ques- 
tions remain. Why did the Romans fix their boundary 



240 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

where they did ? The military reason of obtaining a 
narrow tract of land to fortify was no doubt a strong 
one. But the Romans were a practical people and 
wished to make their province of Britain a profitable 
possession. It may be that the valley of the Tyne 
was the most northern point where they saw a prospect 
of making agriculture immediately remunerative. By 
the Tyne Valley they established their boundary, and 
only kept such a hold of the country to the north as 
might help to secure the Tyne Valley from invasion. 
It proved to be a difficult and in the end an impossible 
task. The sturdy tribes of the north learned to value 
at its true worth the intolerable boon of Roman civili- 
sation, the colonist, the tribute and the tithe corn. In 
their moorland forts they resisted to the utmost. Con- 
stant warfare increased their discipline and power of 
combination. The growing wealth of the province 
offered a richer prize to their rapacity. Ever watchful 
for an opportunity they broke through the line of the 
wall and swept like a storm-cloud over the southern 
fields. Much, very much, has been done in explaining 
the Roman Wall as illustrative of the life of the Romans. 
Something remains to be done in studying it as illus- 
trating the character of those whom it was built to repel. 
I could conceive it possible that an archaeologist who 
was skilled in military science, and had the power of re- 
producing in his mind the local features of a bygone 
time — that one so gifted might make a military survey 
of the country round the Wall, which would be full of 
suggestiveness for a picture of British life. I must 
own that the Wall is to me more interesting for the 
impression which it gives of the power of the Britons 



THE NORTUHMBRIAN BORDER 241 

than of the mightiness of Rome. We know Rome's 
greatness from many other memorials. We know the 
bravery of the Britons only by the reluctant testimony 
of their enemies. 

As we muse upon the ruins of Borcovicus another 
question strikes us. How came it that the men 
who so stubbornly resisted the massive legionaries of 
Rome, who marched against them in their thousands, 
gave way before the onslaughts of the Angles who 
came in small bands in their boats ? It would seem 
that the need of resistance to Rome had called into 
being a premature organisation, a reckless patriotism, 
which produced a rapid reaction and degeneracy. 
The very greatness of Rome's power warned the 
Britons of their danger. Its advance was steady and 
threatened to spread northwards over the land. The 
Angles who settled along the east coast and passed 
up the river valleys did not awaken the same dread, 
or call out the same feeling of national danger. But 
the insidious progress of the colonist was more deadly 
than the warlike advance of the invader. Little by 
little the Britons were thrust into the hill country of 
the west. The line of the coast and the river valleys 
were gradually occupied by the clearings of the Angles. 
The land was still a Border-land, but the line of the 
Border no longer ran between north and south, but 
between east and west. When Ida, whom the fearful 
Britons called the Flamebearer, combined into a king- 
dom the scattered settlements of a common folk, it 
was in the Roman Border-land that those settlements 
began. They reached from the Tweed Valley north- 
wards and southwards, till Ida occupied the rock of 

16 



242 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Bamboroug has a central point, and then extended his 
domain to the Tees. 

The question of the Border between Briton and 
Angle, between east and west, was long contended 
and with varying results. The Britons on their side 
again united into the kingdom of Strathclyde, north 
of which was the Scottish kingdom of Dalriada. I 
will not impose upon your time and patience by 
tracing the variations of this western boundary. It 
will be enough to recall a few points of interest in the 
struggle. In 603 the combined army of Britons and 
Scots advanced to attack ^thelfrith's Northumbrian 
kingdom. They entered the vale of the^ Liddell, 
whence one pass leads into the valley of the Teviot 
and the Tweed, while another leads into the North 
Tyne. Here at a spot which Bede calls Daegsastan, 
a name still preserved in Dawstaneburn and Dawstane- 
rig, was fought a battle which determined for many 
years the security of the Northumbrian Border. " From 
that time," says Bede, triumphantly, "no Scot king 
dared to come into Britain to war with the English to 
this day." The Angles recognised on this spot the 
weakness of their boundary, and copied the example 
of Rome. The remains of a huge earthen rampart, 
known as the Catrail, may still be traced along the 
wild moorland or hard by the spot where Daegsastan 
had run with blood. 

I recall this event because it is a definite mark of 
an important point in our provincial history. The 
boundary from east to west led to the severance of 
Cumbria from Northumbria. The English desired 
only to secure, not to extend, their dominion west- 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 243 

ward. They weakened the kingdom of Strathclyde 
by driving a wedge of settlers into the tableland which 
lay in its midst. They penetrated along the valley of 
the Irthing, along the Maiden Way, into the central 
plain, which gained from them the name of Ingle- 
wood; but they left the mountainous district to the 
Britons. 

I need not recall the great days of the Northumbrian 
kingdom, the heroic times of early Christianity, when 
the lamp of civilisation burned brightly in the Columbite 
monastery of Lindisfarne, and was reflected from the 
royal house of Bamborough. This period of greatness, 
though of immense importance to English history, is 
unfortunately only an episode in the history of this 
district as a whole. Yet there is no spot in England 
more fitted to awaken a deep sense of gratitude to 
the past than is the land which lies beneath the 
castle of Bamborough. No works of man have effaced 
the traces of the past. The rocks remain amid the 
surging of the waves, as when Cuthbert heard amongst 
them the wails of men's souls in the eternal conflict 
between good and evil. The village clusters for pro- 
tection at the foot of the royal castle, much as it did 
when it was fired by Penda's host. The sloping up- 
lands are dotted by scattered farms, in which may 
still be traced the progressive clearings of the English 
settlers. The ruins of the monastery of Lindisfarne 
still hide themselves behind a sheltering promontory 
of rock, that they may escape the eye of the heathen 
pirate who swept the northern seas. There is no place 
which tells so clearly the story of the making of 
England. 



244 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

I pass by the days of the Northumbrian supremacy, 
which ended with Egfrith's defeat at Nechtansmere, 
where the Pictish king avenged the slaughter of Daeg- 
sastan. " From this time," says Bede, " the hopes and 
strength of the kingdom of the English began to ebb." 
The Northumbrian kingdom still pursued its career of 
literary and ecclesiastical activity at Jarrow, Wear- 
mouth and Streaneshalch. It did not pass away till it 
had produced an historian of its greatness. But its 
boundaries, north and west, were ill secured. Its 
premature progress gave way to social and political 
disorganisation. The long, black ships of the Danish 
pirates spread ruin amidst the numerous monastic 
houses which fringed the eastern coast. The Scots 
of Dalriada established their supremacy over the Picts, 
and a strong Scottish power ravaged the district be- 
tween the Forth and the Tweed. But Scots and 
English alike soon fell before the arms of the Danes 
who came as invaders, and conquered and settled as 
they would. Churches and monasteries were especi- 
ally hateful to the heathen Danes. Their buildings 
were burnt, their treasures were scattered, their libraries 
were destroyed. The work of Benedict Biscop, of 
Wilfrid and of Bede, was all undone. The civilisation 
of Northumbria was well-nigh swept away. Only 
round the relics of the saintly Cuthbert a little band 
of trembling monks still held together, and wandered 
from place to place, kept steadfast by their faith that 
Cuthbert would not forsake them. It was the West 
Saxon Alfred that checked the career of Danish 
conquest ; it was his wisdom that prepared a way 
whereby the Danes ceased to be formidable, and 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 245 

became a new but not alien element of English 
life. 

The Danish settlement had little effect on the 
northern part of the Northumbrian kingdom. The 
Danes chose Deira, not Bernicia ; their traces are 
found in Yorkshire, not in Northumberland. Their 
incorporation into English civilisation and the limits 
of their settlement in Northumbria are alike illus- 
trated by the story of Guthred. To escape a civil war 
amongst themselves they listened to the counsels of 
Alfred, aided by Eadred, the prior of the wandering 
monks at Lindisfarne. Eadred counselled them to 
choose as their king Guthred, a young man of the royal 
blood, who had been sold as a slave to a widow woman 
at Whittingham. Guthred, grateful for St. Cuthbert's 
aid, settled his brethren at Cunecacestre, now Chester- 
le-Street, and gave as the patrimony of St. Cuthbert 
the land between the Tyne and the Tees, with privilege 
of sanctuary. This was the beginning of another step 
in our provincial history. It was the origin of what 
was known till very recent times as The Bishopric. 
It was the foundation of the authority of the Prince- 
Bishops of Durham. It marks the cause which 
severed the county of Durham from the county of 
Northumberland. 

The Danish kingdom in Deira ran its course, and 
in due time submitted to the lordship of the West 
Saxon king. In Bernicia, meanwhile, members of the 
old royal house were allowed to rule over their devas- 
tated lands, for which they paid tribute to their Danish 
lords. When the Danes made submission to Eadward 
the Elder the men of Bernicia submitted likewise. 



246 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

But the men of the north were unruly subjects, and 
were hard to reduce into harmony with the men of the 
south. Edmund and Eadred both strove to make a 
peaceful settlement of their northern frontier. Ed mund 
gave Cumberland to Malcolm, King of Scots, on con- 
dition that he should be his "fellow-worker by land 
and sea ". He wished to show that there need be no 
collision of interest between England and Scotland. 
It was a question for decision on grounds of expediency, 
how order could best be kept in the doubtful portions 
of Northumbria and Strathclyde. Edmund handed 
over this responsibility, as far as Cumberland was 
concerned, to the Scottish king, and the plan succeeded. 
In later days William Rufus reclaimed the district 
south of the Solway, and so fixed the definite boundary 
of the English kingdom on the western side. Eadred 
had still to face the difficulty of dealing with North- 
umbrian independence, which had degenerated into 
anarchy and disorder. The last king was driven out, 
and an earl was set to rule in his stead ; but so strong 
was local feeling that the earl was chosen from the 
old house of the lords of Bamborough. Eadred's 
successor, Edgar, ventured a step farther, and divided 
this great earldom into two. Moreover he followed 
Edmund's example of friendly dealings with the 
Scottish king. The land north of the Tweed was of 
little value to the English. Lothian was ceded to the 
Scottish king, most probably by Edgar, though it was 
afterwards recovered, but finally ceded in I0i6. 

The hopes of Edgar that Northumberland would 
settle into peace and order were destroyed by the 
renewed invasion of the Northmen. Again all was in 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 247 

confusion. Again the terrified monks bore off St. 
Cuthbert's body that they might save it from sacrilege. 
Their wanderings were miraculously stayed, so goes 
the legend, upon a hill-top amid the waving woods 
that clad a bold promontory round which flowed the 
waters of the Wear. This hill-top of Dunholm was 
chosen as the site on which rose the mighty minster 
that holds St. Cuthbert's shrine. The saint left the 
bleaker regions farther north which he had loved so 
well. The outward signs of devotion for his memory 
were not to gather round the scenes of his labours. 
The chief centre of ecclesiastical civilisation was 
henceforth fixed far away from Bamborough, on a 
spot which had no associations with the old days 
of Northumbria's greatness. This northern district 
was abandoned by its patron saint, as though a 
destined theatre for acts of lawlessness and deeds of 
blood. 

The lawlessness and barbarism of Northumberland 
in these days, we know from the history of its earls. 
Uhtred, who sprang from the old line of the lords of 
Bamborough, covenanted, as a condition of his marriage 
with a citizen's daughter, to espouse the blood-feud 
of his father-in-law and slay for him his enemy. 
Though the marriage was broken off and the covenant 
was unfulfilled, the enemy who had been threatened 
bided his time, and slew Uhtred in the presence of 
King Cnut. The feud was carried on by Uhtred's 
son, who slew his father's slayer, and was himself 
pursued in turn. The two foes grew weary of their 
lives, spent in perpetual dread ; they were reconciled, 
and undertook together a pilgrimage to Rome. But 



248 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the sea was tempestuous, and they shrank before the 
voyage. They agreed to dispense with the solemn 
religious vow and to return home in peace. But on 
the way home the old savage passion for revenge 
revived, and one slew his unsuspecting fellow as they 
rode together through the forest of Risewood. We 
see the growth of the wild spirit which supplied the 
material for the Border feuds of later days. 

Still, lawless as Northumberland might be, it could 
not forget the days of its former greatness. Though 
it could no longer hope for supremacy, it struggled at 
least for independence. Its resistance to the family 
of Godwine, its rejection of Tostig for its earl, caused 
dissension within the house which seemed to hold 
England's future in its hands. The refusal of North- 
umberland to help King Harold was one great cause, 
we cannot say how great, of the victory of the Norman 
William by the " hoar apple-tree " on the hill of Senlac. 
Perhaps the Northumbrians hoped under William's 
rule to establish their independence. But William 
was not the man to allow the formation of a middle 
kingdom. He soon learned the lawlessness of the 
Northumbrian temper. His first earl, though of 
English blood, was attacked at Newburn, and the 
church in which he sought shelter was burned to the 
ground. His second earl was driven away by a revolt 
His third earl, a Norman, was massacred in Durham 
with all his men. William saw the gathering danger 
threatened by this northern love for independence. 
His answer to the northern revolt was swift and 
decided. He let men feel his starkness by his re- 
morseless harrying of the north. The lands between 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 249 

the Humber and the Tees, and then the lands of the 
Bishopric, were reduced to a waste. The population 
fell by the sword or died of hunger. Northumberland 
was left powerless for any further revolt of a serious 
kind. The southern portion of the old kingdom, 
Deira, lost all outward sign of its former position, 
Its old independence needed no further recognition, 
and no earl was appointed for South Northumberland. 
Hence the old name was transferred entirely to the 
northern part, which being a Border-land against the 
Scots still needed some responsible governor. That 
northern part, which is far north of the Humber, alone 
retained the name which can recall the memories of 
the greatness of the Northumbrian kingdom. 

But though the independence of the north had 
been thoroughly broken by systematic devastation, 
still William paid some heed to its local feeling by 
giving it an earl sprung from the old Northumbrian 
line. Though he did so, he regarded Earl Waltheof 
with a jealous eye, and demanded from him a loyalty 
which he did not find in his Norman barons. Slight 
cause for suspicion brought upon Waltheof condign 
punishment, and William knew no mercy for the last 
English earl, whose tomb at Crowland men visited as 
that of a martyr and a saint. William then conferred 
the earldom of Northumberland on the Lotharingian, 
Walcher, Bishop of Durham. Again the lawless 
spirit of the Northumbrians broke out, and they took 
prompt revenge on the Bishop for a misdeed which 
he did not punish to their liking. At a moot, held 
by a little chapel at Gateshead, the men of the Tyne 
and Rede gathered in numbers. As the talk went 



2 50 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

on, a cry was raised, " Short rede, good rede, slay ye 
the Bishop ! " and Walcher was slaughtered at the 
chapel door. Again Northumberland was harried, 
and Robert, the King's son, on his way from Scotland, 
laid the foundation of a castle opposite the spot 
where Bishop Walcher had been slain. Its walls 
rose as a solid and abiding warning to a turbulent 
folk. Near it were the remains of a Roman bridge 
across the Tyne — Pons ^lii, the bridge that the 
Emperor ^lius Hadrianus had built. Hard by was 
the little township of Pandon and some remains of a 
camp, which may have afforded shelter to the monks, 
and so gained the name of Monkchester. In distinc- 
tion to the ruins of this old camp, the rising fortress 
was called the new castle. Soon a population gathered 
round it which extended to Pandon and Monkchester 
alike, and these old names were absorbed into that 
of Newcastle. 

Nor was the fortress of Newcastle the only sign of 
the presence of the conquering Normans. The three 
great baronies of Redesdale, Mitford and Morpeth, 
held by the Umfravilles, the Bertrams and the Merlais, 
extended in a belt across the district. North of them 
the Vesci, lords of Alnwick, built their castle on the 
banks of the Aln, and laid the foundation of the 
second Northumbrian town. The land was again 
committed to the care of a Norman earl ; but it would 
seem that the lawlessness of the Northumbrians was 
contagious. Earl Mowbray plotted against William 
Rufus, who took the castle of Tynemouth, but was 
foiled by the strength of the rock of Bamborough, 
which could not be taken till Mowbray's imprudence 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 251 

made him the victim of a stratagem. After this we 
hear no more of official earls. Northumberland 
depended directly on the crown, and went its own 
way for a short time in peace. But the weakness of 
Stephen had well-nigh allowed Northumberland to 
go the way of Lothian and become attached as an 
appanage to the Scottish crown. David I. had 
married the daughter of Earl Waltheof, and Stephen 
recognised this claim to the earldom of Northumber- 
land. If Stephen had had a less statesmanlike 
successor than Henry II. the English Border might 
have been fixed along the old frontier of the Roman 
Wall. But Henry II. regarded it as his first duty to 
undo the mischief of Stephen's reign. He demanded 
the restoration of the northern counties, and from 
this time the limits of the English Border were 
definitely settled. It is true that there was a small 
piece of land on the Cumbrian Border about the 
possession of which England and Scotland could not 
agree, and this Debatable Land was occupied as 
common pasture by the inhabitants of both countries 
from sunrising to sunsetting, on the understanding 
that anything left there over night should be fair 
booty to the finder. On the Northumbrian Border 
also, the fortress of Berwick was an object of conten- 
tion and often changed hands, till the luckless town 
of Berwick-upon-Tweed received the doubtful privilege 
of ranking as a neutral state, and its " liberties " were 
exposed to the indiscriminate ravages of English and 
Scots alike. Nor should it be unnoticed that the 
castle of Roxburgh was generally in the hands of 
the English king, as a protection of the strip of 



252 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

low-lying land south of the Tweed, where the barrier 
of the Cheviots merged into the river valley. 

I have now traced the historical steps in the 
formation of the English Border, and the causes 
which gave the modern county of Northumberland 
a separate existence and a distinct character. The 
rest of its history is written on the county itself, and 
tells its own story in the various interesting re- 
mains of antiquity which cover the land. I will 
briefly draw attention to the chief periods which they 
mark. 

(i) From the beginning of the twelfth to the be- 
ginning of the fourteenth centuries, baronial and 
monastic civilisation did much to bring back order 
and prosperity. The details of the management of 
a Northumbrian farm have been preserved in the 
compotus of the sheriff of Northumberland, who held 
for six months the lands of the Knights Templars at 
Temple Thornton, which were seized by Edward II. 
in 1308. The sheriff's accounts are compiled with 
business-like precision, and enable us to judge with 
accuracy of Northumbrian farming at the time. They 
show a system of farming quite as advanced as that 
which existed at the end of the last century. For 
instance, among the expenditure is an entry for 
ointment to protect the heads of the sheep from the 
fly. The total receipts were £g^ 2s. /d., the total 
expenses were £2iZ los. /d., leaving a balance of £60 
I2S., a proportionate return for his expenditure which 
any modern farmer would be glad to obtain. 

(2) This period of prosperity was already passing 
away when the sheriff penned his accounts. He had 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 253 

to sell some oats and barley in a hurry, propter 
ntetum Scotoi'um superveniencium — through dread of 
a raid of the Scots. The Scottish war of Edward I. 
led to the ruin of the English Border. The nova 
taxatio of the goods of the clergy, made in 13 18, 
estimates the ecclesiastical revenues in the Arch- 
deaconry of Northumberland at £2% 6s. 8d. for the 
benefices of Newcastle, Tynemouth, Newburn, Benton, 
Ovingham and Woodhorn. Then follows an entry 
that all the other benefices are vasta et destructa^ et 
in eisdefn nulla bona sunt inventa — are barren and 
waste, and no goods are found in them. For the 
northern part of the county there is an enumeration 
of the benefices, with the remark that they are vastata 
etpenitus destructa — wasted and wholly destroyed. It 
was this state of things which led to the organisation 
of border defences. The office of Lord Warden of the 
Marches, established under Edward I., became a post 
of serious responsibility. Castles which had been 
built to overawe a turbulent population, or to increase 
the power of their owners against the crown, became 
necessary means of protection to the country. The 
land was dotted with peel towers — small square rooms 
of massive stones, strong enough to give temporary 
refuge to fugitives till the marauding troop had passed 
by on its plundering raid. Elsewhere were earthen 
or wooden huts, which contained nothing that could 
attract cupidity. An Italian traveller, ^Eneas Sylvius 
Piccolomini, has left a picture of a journey through 
Northumberland in 1435. The folk had poultry, but 
neither bread nor wine ; white bread was unknown 
among them. At nightfall all the men retired to a 



254 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

peel tower in the neighbourhood, through fear of the 
Scots, but left the women behind, saying they would 
not be harmed. JEnesiS sat in terror round the 
watch-fire till sleep overcame him, and he lay down 
on a couch of straw in one of the huts. His slumbers 
were disturbed by the cows and goats, who shared 
the room with the family and nibbled at his bed. At 
midnight there was an alarm that the Scots were 
coming, and the women fled to hide themselves. The 
alarm, however, was groundless, and next day ^Eneas 
continued his journey safely. When he reached 
Newcastle he seemed to himself again to be in a 
world which he knew. For Northumberland, he says, 
" was uninhabitable, horrible, uncultivated ". 

(3) The more pacific attitude towards Scotland 
adopted by Henry VII. brought a little peace; but 
the battle of Flodden Field and the events that 
followed led to a determination on the part of Henry 
VIII. to use Border raids as a means for punishing 
Scotland, and gradually wearing out its strength. 
The Lords Wardens are urged on to the work of 
devastation by the Lords of the King's Council, and 
send in hideous accounts of their zeal in this barbarous 
work. Thomas Lord Dacre writes with pride that 
the land, which was tilled by 550 ploughs, owing to 
his praiseworthy activity " lies all waste now, and no 
corne saune upon none of the said grounds ". Again, 
he tells Wolsey how the lieutenant of the middle 
marches entered Scotland with 1,000 men and "did 
very well, brought away 800 nowte, and many horses. 
My son and brother made at the same time an inroad 
into the west marches, and got nigh 1,000 nowte. 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 255 

Little left upon the frontiers except old houses, 
whereof the thak and coverings are taken away so 
that they cannot be brent." The records of Border 
warfare throw light upon the cold-blooded and de- 
liberate savagery which characterised the beginning of 
the sixteenth century. We recognise it clearly enough 
in other countries : we tend to pass it over leniently 
at home. 

(4) Under Elizabeth came peace between England 
and Scotland, and things grew better on the Borders. 
Deeds of violence were still common and disputes 
were rife. But Elizabeth's ministers were anxious 
that these disputes should be decided by lawful means, 
and that disorders should be as much as possible 
repressed. An elaborate system of international 
relationships was established. Every treaty and 
agreement about the government of the Borders was 
hunted up and its provisions were put in force. The 
wardenship of the English Marches was no longer 
committed to Percies, Greys, or Dacres, but to new 
men chosen for official capacity. There was no longer 
need of Border chiefs to summon their men for a foray 
and work wild vengeance for wrongs inflicted. Aspir- 
ing statesmen like Sir Ralph Sadler and Sir Robert 
Carey were entrusted with the task of organising a 
system of defence. Scotland was overawed not so 
much by armed force as by red-tape. The Scottish 
Council was employed in answering pleas and counter- 
pleas wherewith the technical ingenuity of the English 
wardens constantly plied them. The amount of ink 
shed over the raid of Reedswire is a forecast of the 
best traditions of modern diplomacy. Scotland was 



256 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

pestered by official ingenuity into a serious considera- 
tion of Border affairs. The English Borders were 
elaborately organised for defence. The country was 
mapped out into watches, and the obligation was laid 
upon the townships to set and keep the watches day 
and night. When the fray was raised, every man was 
bound to follow under penalty of fine and imprison- 
ment. Castles and peel towers were converted into a 
system extending across the Border, with signal com- 
munication from one to another. A brief quotation 
from some articles made at Alnwick in 1570 may serve 
to illustrate the thoroughness of the system : " That 
every man that hath a castelle or a tower of stone 
shall, upon every fray raised in the night, give warn- 
ing to the contrey by fier in the toppe of the castelle 
or tower, in such sorte as he shall be directed from his 
warninge castelle, upon paine of iijs. iiijd." 

The system in itself was admirable. Its only de- 
fect was that in proportion as it led to momentary 
success it tended to decay. Sir John Forster writes 
from Berwick in 1575 : "Thanks be to God we have 
had so longe peace that the inhabitants here fall to 
tillage of grounde, so that theye have not delight to be 
in horse and armore as they have when the worlde ys 
troblesome. And that which theye were wont to be- 
stowe in horse they nowe bestowe in cattell otherwayes, 
yet notwithstandinge whensoever the worlde graveth 
anye thinge troblesome or unquiet theye will bestowe 
all they have rather than theye will want horses." It 
is worth while noticing Sir John Forster's remedy for 
the carelessness which peace engendered. He advises 
that " a generall comaundement should come from her 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 257 

majestie to the noble men and gentlemen here to favor 
their tennants as their auncestors have doon before 
tyme for defence of the frontiers." 

"To favor their tennants as their auncestors have 
doon before tyme." I believe that in these words we 
have the key to much of the social history of the 
English Border. A ramble through Northumberland 
shows much that tells of the former greatness of feudal 
lords. There are no corresponding memorials to 
distinguish the sites of the townships, which once 
largely consisted of freeholders, who armed themselves 
and fought for house and home. Northumberland at 
the present day is regarded as a great feudal county, 
with feudal antiquities and feudal memories visible at 
every turn. I believe, on the contrary, that in no part 
of England did the manorial system sit so lightly, or 
work such little change. Traces of primitive institu- 
tions and primitive tenures are found in abundance 
whenever we penetrate beneath the surface. 

First of all, there is a noticeable feature which es- 
pecially marks the district comprised within the limits 
of th^ old Northumbrian kingdom — the survival to the 
present day of a very large number of townships, which 
are still recognised as poor-law parishes, and elect their 
own waywardens, overseers and guardians of the poor. 
Even at the present day there are only thirty ecclesi- 
astical parishes in this county which are conterminous 
with a single township. The remaining 132 parishes 
contain among them 513 townships. There are as 
many as thirty townships contained in a single parish, 
and the general number is four or five. This can 
easily be accounted for from the facts of local history ; 

17 



258 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

but it shows the need which was felt for the mainten- 
ance of small separate districts with some powers of 
self-government. Again, the ecclesiastical vestries of 
the ancient parishes of Northumberland consist, al- 
most universally, of a body of four-and-twenty, who 
are appointed by co-optation. The term "vestry" 
does not occur in the Church books, which uniformly 
speak of a " meeting of the Four-and-twenty ". This 
seems to point to an original delegation of power into 
the hands of representatives from the different town- 
ships comprising the parish. 

These townships were village communities each an 
agrarian unit. I will not attempt to co-ordinate 
my evidence about them with any general theory of 
land tenure, but will simply state a few facts relating 
to them. The township of Embleton lies within the 
barony granted to John Vesconte by Henry I. A 
deed, dated 1730, at which time the Earl of Tankerville 
was lord of the manor, contains the award of arbitrators 
appointed by the consent of all parties to have the lands 
of the townships divided. It recites that the Earl of 
Tankerville and eight others are " severally seized of 
the farms, cottages, and parts of farms in the township 
fields," Lord Tankerville of sixteen and a half farms, 
the others of quantities varying from three farms, one 
and eleven-twelfths of a farm, to one-sixth part of a 
farm. It then proceeds : " The premises above men- 
tioned lie promiscuous in common fields undivided ". 
The only holder in severalty was the vicar, whose 
" parcel of ground known as the East Field " affords 
the only known landmark from which the division can 
begin. The general result of the arbitrarors' award is 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 259 

that the vicar receives an average of fifty-six acres for 
each of his three farms, Lord Tankerville gets an 
average of sixty-four acres for each of his sixteen and 
a half farms, and the other holders average seventy- 
six acres for each of their eight farms. The varying 
quantity seems to depend on the quality of the land 
allotted in each case. I will not multiply evidence for 
this opinion, but will quote a statement made by a 
man who was in the employment of a solicitor in 
Morpeth, and who represented a legal memory ex- 
tending back as far as 1780. He says : " I believe 
that in former times the word farm was used in many 
parts of this country to express an aliquot part in value 
of a township, being one of several portions of land of 
which a township consisted, each one of such portions 
having originally been of equal value ". He supports 
this by reference to cases of allotments in which he 
was himself concerned. 

This use of the word farm to signify an original 
unit of land tenure is peculiar to Northumberland, 
and probably has led to much interesting evidence 
being overlooked, as the ancient use of the word for a 
fixed interest in undivided land is easily confounded 
with its modern signification of a fixed amount of land. 
But many traces can still be found by one who searches 
for them. The records of vestry books show that con- 
tributions to parochial purposes were assessed upon 
each township in proportion to the number of ancient 
farms which it contained. In many cases this continued 
long after the division of the lands of the township, and 
long after the old meaning of the word farm had been 
forgotten. Church rates were paid on farms ; so were 



26o HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

customary payments to the parish clerk and sexton. 
At Warkworth the vestry resolved to rebuild the 
church wall, each farm being responsible for two yards 
of walling. It is curious to observe how long it was 
possible for an ancient institution to exist side by side 
with a new one. In the township of North Seaton 
the assessment of church rates on farms ceased in 1746, 
but the assessment of poor rate remained on the ancient 
basis down to 183 1. Still more noticeable is the case 
of the township of Burradon. I have no record when 
the enclosure of the greater part of the township took 
place ; but two parcels of land were left unenclosed. 
One was divided in 1723, the other in 1773. Upon 
both divisions each freeholder had appointed to him 
a part of the common in proportion to the number of 
ancient farms of which his enclosed lands were reputed 
to have consisted. Even after this final division the 
old system did not entirely disappear. Up to the year 
1827 poor rates and highway rates were assessed at so 
much per farm, not so much per pound. 

The evidence which I have at present proves the 
ancient division into farms of forty-eight townships. 
A calculation of the areas of these farms, after they 
were divided, shows a great variety. They range from 
1,083 acres to fifty. No doubt this can easily be ac- 
counted for. In the less fertile parts of the county 
there were large tracts of waste, which ultimately were 
absorbed by the townships, scattered at a considerable 
distance from one another. But there are eight town- 
ships where the average farm is below 100 acres, nine 
townships where the average is between 100 and 120 
acres, and nine where it is between 120 and 150 acres. 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 261 

This great variety renders it difficult to account for 
the Northumbrian farms by any of the modes of 
reckoning which have hitherto been proposed as of 
universal application. The Northumbrian unit seems 
to point solely to the actual facts of the needs of each 
township at the time of its original settlement. 

The relations of these townships to the feudal lords 
varied, I believe, as much as did their unit of land 
tenure, though on this point it would be necessary to 
search the manor rolls in the case of each one separately. 
A few facts, however, may be stated on this subject. 
The manor of Tynemouth consists of eleven townships. 
Three of them are of freehold tenure. The remaining 
eight were in 1847 held partly in copyhold, partly in 
freehold. Each copyhold farm made a payment for 
"boon days," and also paid a corn rent. This rent 
varied in each township ; but payment was in every 
case made according to the number of ancient reputed 
farms or parts of a farm of which the land consisted. We 
have no difficulty here in tracing a case in which the 
lord's demesne was scattered in eight out of the eleven 
townships contained in his manor. Three townships 
belonged entirely to freeholders, and freeholders were 
settled in the other townships also. 

I pass to another instance, the township of North 
Middleton. The rolls of the court baron of the barony 
of Morpeth, which is held by the Earl of Carlisle, show 
that transfers of land in that township were accom- 
plished by the admission of the new owner on the 
rolls of the manor. The township of North Middleton 
consisted in 1759 ^^ fourteen farms, of which ten were 
held by the Duke of Portland, one by the Earl of 



262 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Carlisle, and three were divided among six other free- 
holders. The condition of the township in 1797 is 
described as follows : " The cesses and taxes of the 
township are paid by the occupiers in proportion to 
the number of farms or parts of farms by them occupied. 
These farms are not divided or set out, the whole 
township lying in common and undivided, except that 
the Duke of Portland has a distinct property in the 
mill and about ten acres of land adjoining, and that 
each proprietor has a distinct property in particular 
houses, cottages and crofts in the village of North 
Middleton. The general rule of cultivating and 
managing the lands within the township has been for 
the proprietors or their tenants to meet together and 
determine how much or what particular parts of the 
land shall be in tillage, how much and what parts in 
meadow, and how much and what parts in pasture ; 
and they then divide and set out the tillage and 
meadow lands amongst themselves in proportion to 
the number of farms or parts of farms which they are 
respectively entitled to. And the pasture lands are 
stinted in proportion of twenty stints to each farm." 

In this case we have the open field system, with 
separate homesteads. The lord has a small share in the 
common lands, but has no separate demesne. The free- 
holders have mostly parted with their interests to a 
wealthy landholder ; those who still remain hold small 
portions varying from seven-eighths to three-eighths of 
an original farm. 

A third instance shows other results. The town- 
ship of Newbiggin-by-the-Sea was in a manor which 
ultimately passed into the hands of the Widdringtons. 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 263 

In 1720 Lord Widdrington's lands were forfeited and 
were sold to a London company, who claimed mano- 
rial rights which the freeholders of Newbiggin would 
not allow. The proceedings of a long Chancery suit, 
in which the freeholders were left with their privileges 
unimpaired, show us a community completely self-gov- 
erned, with no interference from a lord and little from 
the crown. They had a grant of market and fair, and 
tolls on ships coming into their little harbour. They 
paid to the crown a fee-farm rent of £10 6s. In 1730, 
to which date the freeholders' books have survived, we 
find the arable land already divided, but the pasture 
land still in common. The freeholders meet and make 
bye-laws for the pasturage. They appoint constables, 
ale-tasters, and bread-weighers. They levy tolls on 
boats and ships, and receive payments for carts load- 
ing sea-weed from the shore, for lobster tanks in the 
rocks, for stones quarried on the fore-shore. The 
money received from these rents of the rocks is 
divided among the freeholders in proportion to the 
ancient freeledges, or farms. 

These three instances may serve to show the ex- 
ceeding variety of social life in Northumberland, and 
the comparatively slight effects of the imposition of 
the Norman manorial system upon the ancient town- 
ships. No doubt this great variety was due to the 
exceptional character of the county. The lords were 
bound to "favour their tenants for the defence of the 
frontiers". They meddled little with the freeholders 
of the townships, who formed a stalwart body of 
soldiers ready to follow the fray. 

(5) But this same habit of following the fray had its 



264 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

disadvantages. It created a wild and lawless manner of 
life. Though war ceased between England and Scot- 
land, feuds and robberies by no means ceased between 
the borderers on each side. " The number is wonder- 
ful," write the English commissioners in 1596, "of 
horrible murders and maymes, besides insupportable 
losses by burglaryes and robberies, able to make any 
Christian eares to tingle and all true English hartes to 
bleede." They estimate the murders at 1,000 and the 
thefts to the value of ^100,000 in the last nine years. 
The union of the crowns of England and Scotland under 
one sovereign swept away all pretence for hostility on 
the Borders, and left the problem of reducing a law- 
less people to order. This work was begun by the 
strong sense and capacity of Lord William Howard of 
Naworth. It would be an interesting and profitable 
study to trace exactly the disappearance of savage 
ways and riotous tempers. The work has, at all 
events, been done in a thorough and satisfactory 
manner. In no part of England can there be found 
a more orderly, peaceable, law-abiding folk than are 
the Northumbrian peasantry. In no part of England 
is greater friendliness arid hospitality shown to the 
wayfarer than in the valleys of the Cheviot Hills, 
which were once the haunts of moss-troopers. I never 
wander over the lovely moorland, and look upon the 
smiling, peaceful fields below, without feeling comfort 
amid the perplexities of the present by the thoughts of 
the triumph of the past. The frowning castles of the 
feudal lords now stand embowered in trees, and tell of 
nothing save acts of friendliness to those who dwell 
around. The peel towers in their ruins defend the 



THE NORTHUMBRIAN BORDER 265 

flocks and herds from nothing save the inclemency of 
the heavens. Goodly farm-houses and substantial cot- 
tages for the peasants betoken prosperity and comfort. 
The sturdy good sense of English heads, the enduring 
strength of English institutions, have solved a problem 
in this Border-land at least as difficult as those which 
trouble us in the present and cast a shadow over the 
future. 



\66 



THE FENLAND.i 

Some years ago when it was my privilege to address 
the members of the institute at Newcastle-on-Tyne, I 
attempted to put before them a brief sketch of the 
historical facts which had determined the archaeo- 
logical and architectural features of the district which 
they were about to explore. It seemed to me that, 
when you met once again in a district which possessed 
strongly marked features of its own, it was worth while 
to attempt a similar task and show the conditions which 
determined the character of the county which now lies 
before you. Nor is the task a hard one in its main 
lines, for the determining causes are neither remote 
nor complicated. The archaeological and architectural 
features of Eastern England depended on its geograph- 
ical conditions. It was a land of fens and marshes. 

It is difficult, however, as we look over the broad 
expanse of corn land and meadow which meets our 
eye to-day, to think ourselves back to the original 
aspect of the country, when Lincoln, Peterborough and 
Cambridge had almost as good a right to be reckoned 
as seaside towns as has Lynn to-day. This is, of course, 
somewhat an exaggeration, for the waste of waters which 
spread on the east of these towns was not sea-water, nor 

1 Opening address of the historical section at the Cambridge meet- 
ing of the Archaeological Institute. Delivered loth August, 1892. 
Reprinted from the Archceological JouYnal, vol. xlix., p. 263. 



THE FENLAND 267 

was the flow continuous. In the summer months the 
floods gave place to a tract of land which was covered 
with coarse grass, and supplied many necessaries of 
life to the dwellers on its banks. The character of 
the district may best be judged from the words of those 
who saw it. Hugh the White, a monk of Peterborough, 
who wrote about 1 1 50, thus describes the district in 
which he dwelt : — 

" From the flooding of the rivers, or from their over- 
flow, the water, standing on unlevel ground, makes a 
deep marsh and so renders the land uninhabitable, save 
on some raised spots of ground, which I think that God 
set up for the special purpose that they should be the 
habitations of His servants who have chosen to dwell 
there. For within this marshland there live in such 
spots the monks of Ramsey, of Thorney, of Crowland 
and many other places, which can be approached in 
no other way than by water, save Ramsey where on 
one side a road has been laboriously constructed. Ely 
is an island in the same district, seven miles long and 
as many broad, containing twenty-two vills : it is sur- 
rounded on all sides by marsh and water, but is dis- 
tinguished by the possession of three bridges. Burgh 
(/.(?., Peterborough) is founded in the land of the Gyroii, 
where is the beginning of the same marsh on its eastern 
side, extending for sixty miles or more. This marsh, 
however, is very necessary for men ; for there are found 
wood and twigs for fires, hay for the fodder of cattle, 
thatch for covering houses, and many other useful 
things. It is, moreover, productive of birds and fishes. 
For there are there various rivers, and very many waters 
and ponds abounding in fish. In all these things the 



268 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

district is most fertile. Further, Burgh is built in an 
excellent situation ; for on one side it enjoys the marsh, 
and excellent water ; on the other side it enjoys fields, 
woods, meadows and pastures in abundance. It is 
beautiful on all sides, and accessible by land, save on 
the eastern coast whither you cannot come save by 
boat. On the south side the Nen flows past the 
monastery ; after crossing it you may go straight on 
whither you will. When the first founders saw this site, 
so excellent, so eminent, so pleasant, so suitable, most 
fertile and most jocund, abounding in everything and 
most beautiful, as it were an earthly Paradise offered 
them by God, they founded their monastery there." 

This careful picture shows us the chief features of 
the Fenland ; a broad expanse of water, where on the 
islands and along the banks dwelt a hardy race, who 
supported themselves chiefly by chasing wild fowl 
and catching fishes. They traversed the marshes in 
canoes, and lived in thatched huts above the waters. 
In summer time they gathered rushes and firewood, and 
turned out their cattle, where possible, to eat the rank 
grass which grew on the dried-up mud. Nor did the main 
characteristics of life in the Fenlands rapidly change. 
The description given by Drayton in his poetical 
topography of England, the Polyolbion, published in 
1622, agrees substantially with that of the monk Hugo 
nearly five hundred years before. Drayton sings of the 
multitude of wild fowl which haunt the Fens : — 

The duck and mallard first in every mere abound 
That you would think they sat upon the very ground, 
Their numbers be so great, the water covering quite, 
That raised, the spacious air is darkened with their flight. 



THE FENLAND 269 

He goes on to enumerate as denizens of the Fens the 
teal, the gossander, the widgeon, the goldeneye, the 
smeath, the coot, the waterhen, the waterwoosell, the 
dabchick, the swan, the crane, the heron, the redshank, 
the bittern and the wild goose, besides seabirds, amongst 
which are the cormorant and the osprey. Nor is his 
list of fishes less copious. His general picture of 
Fenland life is one of manifold industry : — 

The toiling fisher here is tewing of his net ; 

The fowler is employed his limed twigs to set : 

One underneath his horse to get a shoot doth stalk ; 

Another over dykes upon his stilts doth walk : 

There other with their spades the peats are squaring out, 

And others from their cars are busily about 

To draw out sedge and reed for thatch and stover fit : 

That whosoever would a landskip rightly hit, 

Beholding but my Fens shall with more shapes be stored 

Than Germany or France or Thuscan can afford. 

It must be noticed, however, that this eulogy is put 
into the mouth of the nymph who presides over the 
Fens, and is not allowed to pass without comment by 
her sister who rules the mainland. She exclaims : — 

O how I hate 
Thus of her foggy Fens to hear rude Holland prate, 
That with her fish and fowl here keepeth such a coil, 
As her unwholesome air, and more unwholesome soil, 
For these of which she boasts the more might suffered be. 

She objects that the birds are so rank of taste as to 
be uneatable ; the fish so muddy of flavour that they 
are scarce preferable to starvation : — 

Besides, what is she else, but a foul wrong marsh, 
And that she calls her grass, so blady is and harsh 
As cuts the cattle's mouths constrained thereon to feed. 



270 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Thus it is clear that in the beginning of the seventeenth 
century there were two opposite opinions concerning 
the delights of the Fenland. A century later we find 
that the unfavourable opinion had won its way to general 
acceptance. Defoe, in his Tour through Great Britain^ 
gives his impressions of a visit to Ely in 1722 : — 

"As these Fens appear covered with water, so I 
observed, too, that they generally at this latter part of 
the year appear also covered with fogs ; so that when 
the downs and higher grounds of the adjacent country 
were gilded with the beams of the sun, the isle of Ely 
looked as if wrapped up in blankets, and nothing to be 
seen but now and then the lantern or cupola of Ely 
Minster. One could hardly see this from the hills 
and not pity the many thousands of families that were 
bound to be confined in those fogs, and had no other 
breath to draw than what must be mixed with these 
vapours and that steam which so universally overspreads 
the country. But, notwithstanding this, the people, 
especially those that are used to it, live unconcerned, 
and as healthy as other folks, except now and then an 
ague, which they make light of ; and there are great 
numbers of very ancient people among them." 

The Fenland itself had changed little, but opinion 
about it had changed a good deal. The Peterborough 
monk regarded it as "an earthly Paradise". Defoe 
pitied the poor wretches who were condemned to 
inhabit it. At one period of civilisation men rejoice 
in the manifoldness of natural advantages ; at another 
period men long for the removal of every natural dis- 
advantage. Defoe is but the exponent of the spirit 
of our own day. 



THE FENLAND 271 

Such were the main features of the Fenland. I 
turn to consider their influence on its history. 

(i) It is obvious that the most important point 
connected with the Fenland is its reduction by means 
of a system of drainage to its present condition. The 
process has been gradual and continuous. Perhaps 
already in the time of the Roman occupation, a bank 
was raised to serve as a barrier against the incursions of 
the sea; and the names of Walsoken, Walton and 
Walpole may derive their origin from the Roman wall 
or earthwork near which the early settlements of the 
English were made. But besides the sea there were 
other dangers to be faced — the excessive local rain- 
fall, and the drainage of the upland district which all 
discharged itself upon the Fenland, and could not 
find an outlet. To provide for the latter purpose the 
Romans constructed a catchwater drain, a portion of 
which still exists under the name of Car Dyke, which 
ran just below the uplands probably from Cambridge 
to Lincoln. The former danger was met by a system 
of interior drainage. It would be tedious to tell of the 
various works undertaken at different times for the 
protection of the country. It is enough to say that 
during the Middle Ages the object was to provide 
against inundations, not to reclaim the Fens. Water 
in the winter and grass in the summer, on a secure 
and accountable system, was the general desire. Dray- 
ton indicates the rise of a notion that the Fenland was 
not worth keeping ; and the age of the Stuarts produced 
schemes for making " summer and winter ground " of 
considerable tracts. I will not discuss the enterprise 
of the Dutch engineer Vermuyden further than to say 



272 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

that it was not entirely successful, and had to be sup- 
plemented by windmills, which still in some parts form 
picturesque additions to the landscape. The end of 
last century and the beginning of this saw a continuation 
of the process, till the whole district has been converted 
into agricultural land. Whittlesea Mere, the last 
great remnant of the Fenland, was drained in 1852 ; 
and a small portion of Wicken Fen is now all that is 
left to recall a faint image of the past. 

(2) Now that this change has been fully wrought, 
we tend to forget the effect produced on the land, 
which rose clear of the waters, by its original position 
as a sort of coast-line. Yet it was the guardianship 
of the coast which called into existence the Roman 
Camboritum, the Cambridge of to-day.^ The protec- 
tion of the shores of the Wash against predatory 
incursions was, in the early days of the Roman oc- 
cupation, an object of importance ; the Ermin Street 
which ran from London to Lincoln skirted the northern 
part of the estuary, and protected it by its stations. 
But the Ermin Street struck the line of estuary at 
Durolipons, the modern Godmanchester, close to 
Huntingdon. The south-eastern side of the estuary 
was outside its care. It would seem that Camboricum 
was occupied as a supporting station, connected with 
Durolipons by the Via Devana which was continued 
southwards to Colchester. The Roman system of 
coast defence was thus tolerably complete, and de- 
termined the situation of most of the towns within the 

1 It is now considered almost certain that the Roman Camboritum, 
really Camboricum, was not on the site of the modern Cambridge. — 
L. C. 



THE FENLAND 273 

district. When the Roman occupation ended, the 
immigrants from over sea found little difficulty in 
making their settlements. But it is not my purpose 
to trace the early history of the Gwaras, which was 
not of great importance. It was natural that the men 
of the Fenland should lead a life of isolation, and 
should consequently be slow to recognise accomplished 
facts. The great event in the history of the district is 
its stubborn resistance to William the Norman. The 
outlaw Hereward gathered the disaffected round him 
in the isle of Ely, and exercised all William's engineer- 
ing skill before he could be dislodged from his marshy 
fastness. The exceptional position of the Fenland 
was recognised by Henry I., who raised Ely to be the 
seat of a bishop, on whom was conferred palatinate 
jurisdiction, so that he might exercise on the eastern 
marches the same authority as his brother of Durham 
exercised in the north. Though this jurisdiction dis- 
appeared in 1837, the isle of Ely still retains its 
peculiar position as a shire within a shire. One result 
of this episcopal rule, taken together with the number 
of monasteries and the general character of the country, 
is the absence of great families from the Fenland and 
its borders. You will see no ruined castles, no pictur- 
esque manor houses, in the neighbourhood of the Fens. 
Cambridgeshire has been called "the least gentle- 
manly of all the English counties ". 

(3) I go back again to the description of the Fen- 
land given by Hugh the White, who was delighted by 
the islands which " God had raised for the special 
purpose that they should be the habitations of His 

servants ". He certainly expresses the use to which 

18 



274 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the Fenland had been turned in his own day. It was 
natural that this tract of country should suggest 
monastic settlements. It was secluded, wild, offering 
an opportunity for missionary zeal and for monastic 
labour, needing organisation, yet hard to touch by 
ordinary means. A mixture of devotion and policy 
influenced the first Christian King of Mercia, Peada, 
to follow the advice of his Northumbrian brother 
Oswin, and lay in 655 the foundations of a church at 
Medeshampstead, where a meadow, supplied with a 
well of good water, rose between the Fen and the 
scrub which covered the uplands. The new foundation 
flourished ; and its first abbot sent out a colony to 
the isle of Ancarig or Thorney, so called from the 
thorns with which it was covered. In 673 Etheldreda, 
wife of the Northumbrian Egfrid, fled from the dis- 
charge of her wifely duties, and sought refuge from 
her husband's pursuit in the dower lands which she 
had received from her first husband. King of the 
Southern Fenlanders. There, on the island which 
took its name from the quantities of eels which were 
caught in its surrounding marshes, she founded a 
monastery after the type of her northern refuge at 
Coldingham. Before the century was closed a young 
Mercian noble, weary of war and conflict, and unsatis- 
fied with the seclusion of the monastery of Repton, 
roamed through the Fens till he found at Crudland, or 
Croyland, a spot sufficiently disconsolate for the needs 
of his asceticism. There Guthlac lived amid the birds 
and fishes, who came at his call and ate from his hand ; 
for he found that " all things were at one with him 
who was at one with God ". Men honoured him and 



THE FENLAND 275 

flocked to him for his advice. After his death a 
monastery arose on the spot, which was hallowed by 
the memory of his sanctity. 

Thus motives of policy, asceticism and personal 
convenience combined to mark out the Fenland as 
especially the home of monks. The example once set 
was contagious. In the monastic revival of the tenth 
century, a new monastery was founded on the verge of 
the Fens at Ramsey, said to be so called from a 
solitary ram which was found by the first occupants 
of the island. The monks were the chief land-owners 
within this district. All that was done for civilisation 
was done by them. 

There are two abiding records of their influence to 
which I would call your attention. In no part of 
England, I might say nowhere in the world, are there 
so many mighty buildings to be found in the same 
space as in the Fenland and its borders. This is en- 
tirely due to the impulse given to church building by 
the monasteries and the example which they set. It 
was, of course, natural that the monks should use the 
offerings made by pilgrims for the purpose of adorning 
their churches. But good intentions and lofty aspira- 
tions are not everywhere easy of fulfilment. Near to 
Peterborough there lay a bed of peculiarly hard lime- 
stone, famous in architectural history as Barnack rag. 
The quarry had been worked by the Romans, and its 
value was at once appreciated by the monks. The 
stone could be wrought with ease ; it was capable of 
delicate mouldings ; and its durability has enabled it 
to withstand even the onslaughts of our northern 
climate. A ramble amongst the turrets and pinnacles 



276 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

of the cathedral churches of Ely, Peterborough, or 
Lincoln, enables any one to see at a glance how much 
the architecture owes to the material in which its 
ornaments were wrought. Besides the possession of 
this valuable stone, the Fenlands also enjoyed an easy 
means of transport. The conveyance of heavy loads 
along the imperfect roads of early days was difficult ; 
but flat-bottomed boats could easily traverse the Fens 
in winter and deposit their burden just where it was 
wanted. The size and character of mediaeval build- 
ings was determined more by the command of suitable 
material than by the dictates of immediate utility. 
Churches grew, not to correspond to the needs of the 
population, but because they could be easily built. 
Monasteries received their rents largely in labour. It 
was natural that the labour should be directed toward 
church building. A little local enterprise met with 
ready help. There was no hurry to finish, just because 
there was no large population to provide for. The 
artistic side was allowed to be dominant chiefly because 
there was no utilitarian pressure. 

In this way we can trace the limits of the old Fen- 
land by its great buildings. When water-carriage 
failed the churches dwindled. Along the valley of the 
Nen, and on the Fenland islands, rose the stately 
churches which are most characteristic of English 
architecture, as may be seen in the neighbourhood 
round Wisbech and Lynn. If you turn westward 
from Cambridge to the district which formed the up- 
land in early days, the architectural decline becomes 
at once apparent. The soft clunch of Cambridge- 
shire, admirable as it was for internal decoration, was 



THE FENLAND 277 

not sufficiently durable when exposed to the weather 
to afford material for soaring designs. 

Another point which was determined by the nature 
of the country and its surroundings was the choice of 
Cambridge as a site for a university. It is often asked 
by visitors to Cambridge, Why was this spot selected 
for such a purpose ? And it must be admitted that at 
the present day we cannot point to any very conspicu- 
ous natural advantages. To answer the question, we 
must consider the conditions under which the English 
Universities seem to have come into being. This is a 
difficult subject to speak of with certainty, and I would 
not be understood to put forward more than a few 
suggestions, which seem to me to have some probability. 
The first step in any investigation is to clear the ground 
of misconceptions, and make it clear what we are con- 
sidering. Now a university, properly speaking, means 
a Corporation of Scholars possessing a constitution, 
and the right of conferring degrees, or licences to teach, 
which are everywhere recognised. It was, indeed, at 
one time a guild of scholars, which, after struggling into 
existence, acquired recognition as a Studium Generale, 

The question therefore to be determined is. Why 
did the schools of certain places become strong enough 
to form associations which asserted their rights, and, 
by gaining for themselves a constitution, rise into 
another class from ordinary schools? There can be 
no doubt that the model of such associations was 
brought into England from Paris in the twelfth century, 
with the result of quickening into organised life schools 
which already existed. In earlier times the schools 
of Ireland and England had been foremost in main- 



278 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

taining learning ; but the call of Alcuin from York 
by Charles the Great marked the transference of in- 
tellectual primacy to Gaul. There the schools of 
various monasteries and cathedral churches became 
famous as they possessed eminent teachers, till the 
renown of Abelard established the prestige of Paris. 
We cannot trace a corresponding process in England. 
It was not the presence of eminent teachers which first 
brought our universities into existence, but motives of 
convenience combined with an impulse from outside. 
The schools of Oxford gathered, it is true, round the 
monastery of St. Frideswide, but local conditions seem 
to have given them their superiority. Oxford was 
conveniently situated in the centre of England, on the 
great waterway of the Thames. It was free from 
danger of incursions, and was not a place of arms. 
Under Henry I. it was a favourite residence of the 
king in times of leisure ; and the neighbourhood of the 
royal palace of Beaumont gavehopes of patronage which 
are said to be always attractive to scholars. It had 
been recognised for some time as a convenient meeting- 
place of scholars when it received by a migration from 
Paris that impulse which developed it into a university. 
Cambridge had not the same advantages of position 
as Oxford enjoyed, and we cannot trace a correspond- 
ing growth of general literary resort. But we must 
remember that the dividing line of England in the 
Middle Ages, for commercial and literary intercourse, 
was drawn between east and west, not between north 
and south. The northern counties were so unsettled 
that there was little security for a learned corporation 
north of the Humber and the hills of Peakland. In 



THE FENLAND 279 

1250 the Bishop of Carlisle found it necessary to buy 
the manor of Horncastle in Lincolnshire, and the Pope 
granted him the parish church for his use, when his 
own diocese was impossible. A northern centre of 
learning was not required ; but it was natural that the 
east should seek a centre of its own. It is probable 
that Cambridge grew by conscious rivalry to Oxford, 
which it resembled in many respects. The priory of 
Barnwell gave it a monastic centre ; castle and old 
parish churches were there as at Oxford ; its situation 
secured quiet, and it was easy of access by land or 
water. But the neighbourhood of the great Fenland 
monasteries must have been the chief cause of its 
prosperity. It was a neutral ground to which their 
students might resort. There, also, a meeting-place of 
scholars developed into a university, owing to migra- 
tions from Paris and Oxford, of which we find records 
in 1229 and 1231. 

It is worthy of notice that this process of propaga- 
tion tended to continue. In 1239 a migration was 
made from Oxford to Northampton ; and in 126 1 
Cambridge also attempted to found a colony in the 
same place. Doubtless that town was chosen because 
it fulfilled the necessary conditions for an academic 
residence, and was as far north as it was prudent to go. 
In 1333 a more determined effort was made by a body 
of Oxford malcontents to establish a university at 
Stamford, as a convenient spot for intercepting northern 
students. These schemes were checked by the resist- 
ance of Oxford and Cambridge, which was supported 
by the power of the Crown. It seems as if English 
common sense first recognised, in university matters, 



28o HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

the principle which afterwards developed its system 
of party politics. Two universities were enough to 
promote honourable rivalry, and obtain the advantages 
of competition on different lines. When two had come 
into existence, the multiplication of centres was not 
allowed to go farther, that force should not be wasted, 
and too many centres of opinion be formed. The 
ingenious speculator of to-day might trace a connexion 
between the increase of universities and the disintegra- 
tion of the old political parties. 

But I return to the position of Cambridge as a site 
for a university. It is obvious that motives of local 
convenience out-weighed considerations of fitness. 
Ease of access, accommodation, associations, quiet- 
ness and a good supply of food — these were the 
primary requisites. It has been observed as an argu- 
ment against the solar theory of explaining mythology 
that it represents primitive man as " eternally prosing 
about the weather". This, indeed, is a very modern 
habit. Our ancestors lived and laboured where their 
lot was cast ; and Cambridge scholars doubtless found 
the Fenland full of interest. To recall that interest 
we must revive the picture of the waters which flowed 
as near as Waterbeach, and of the Cam expending its 
sluggish stream round Fen Ditton. If we complete 
our picture by imagining a touch of ague among the 
inhabitants, it is still open for consideration whether 
ague is worse than the maladies engendered by modern 
modes of life. It is tolerably certain that its position 
on the borders of the Fens called Cambridge into being 
as a town, and afterwards made it the seat of a uni- 
versity. Academic patriotism can claim the consent of 
antiquity in regarding it as " an earthly Paradise ". 



28l 



THE TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH 
ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION 
OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY.^ 

The quiet city of Cambridge, whose repose ordinarily 
recalls that of our own University towns, has been for 
the last three days stirred to its foundations. The 
anniversary which Harvard University has been cele- 
brating, awakened an amountof interest which surprised 
even those who were most enthusiastic for its success. 
It is rather difficult in America to say that anything 
outside the sphere of politics is regarded as of national 
importance, but the proceedings at Harvard were as 
nearly national in their interest as the size of the country 
and its divisions will permit. The presence of the 
President of the United States was in itself a tribute 
of national recognition, which was regarded as due to 
the services which Harvard University has rendered 
to the cause of education, not only in New England, 
but throughout the country. 

The history of Harvard University is as interesting 
to the Englishman as it is to the American. The 
little colony of Puritans had scarcely settled in the strip 
of land round Massachusetts Bay, before they hastened 
to put on record their belief that learning is one of 

^ A letter written to the Times from Cambridge, Massachusetts, im- 
mediately after the celebration. 



aSa 



HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 



the necessary supports of a commonwealth. In 1 636, 
when they numbered scarcely 5,000 families, when 
their means were scanty, when an Indian War was 
pending, and religious dissensions weakened them at 
home, the general court of the colony passed a resolu- 
tion agreeing " to give ;^400 towards a school or college, 
whereof ;^200 shall be paid next year, and ;^200 when 
the work is finished, and the next court to appoint 
where and what building". It was the passing of this 
resolution on 7th November which Harvard com- 
memorated as its act of foundation, and Mr. Lowell 
justly drew attention to it, as an act full of sublime 
pathos, and expressive of the high qualities of character 
possessed by the Puritan fathers of the colony. Their 
theology was not founded on subjective emotion, but 
on an intellectual conception of the overmastering 
claims of the truth upon the heart of man. Among 
the early settlers were many graduates of English 
Universities, especially men who had been trained at 
the great centre of Puritanism, Emmanuel College, 
Cambridge. It was in their honour that, when in 1637 
the site of the projected college was fixed at Newtown, 
four miles distant from Boston, by the banks of the 
river Charles, the name of Cambridge was substi- 
tuted for that of Newtown, that the associations of 
academic life might be the inheritance of the new 
foundation. 

At about the time that this was done, the colony 
received a new settler in John Harvard, another gradu- 
ate of Emmanuel. Harvard came already stricken with 
consumption, and could do very little active service for 
the country of his adoption. His imagination, how- 



THE HARVARD ANNIVERSARY 283 

ever, was stirred by the zeal for learning shown by 
the new settlers, and he longed to see their resolu- 
tion to build a college in the new Cambridge carried 
into effect. On his death, in 1638, he bequeathed 
half his fortune, a sum of ;^8oo, and his library to the 
new college. This act of munificence awakened a 
spirit of hopefulness. The colony did not wait till 
its public revenues could undertake the work already 
resolved upon, but Harvard's bequest was supplemented 
by voluntary contributions from every class in the 
community. The building was at once begun and 
received the name of Harvard College, in memory of 
its first benefactor. It is exceedingly interesting to 
observe how closely Americans cling to the traditions 
of their past history. A few years ago John Harvard 
was merely a name inscribed in the admission book of 
Emmanuel College. Now an American antiquary, 
Mr. Walters, has tracked John Harvard to his birth- 
place in Southwark, and has carried back his maternal 
descent to Stratford-on-Avon and the possible com- 
panionship of Shakespeare. An ideal statue of John 
Harvard has recently been erected in the grounds of 
the college which bears his name, and was crowned 
to-day with wreaths by the enthusiasm of undergradu- 
ates. The University of Cambridge and Emmanuel 
College were invited to send delegates to the celebra- 
tion, and were represented by Dr. Taylor, Master of 
St. John's College, and Professor Creighton, Fellow of 
Emmanuel College. But it was clear that to the mass 
of those present Emmanuel College had a much more 
important and more real existence than the University 
of Cambridge. Its delegate was the only one selected 



284 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

by Mr. Lowell in his oration for special mention, and 
no visitor, except the President of the United States, 
received a warmer welcome. It was gratifying to see 
that the link of historical continuity between the 
literary commonwealths of England and America was 
so clearly recognised and so cordially acknowledged. 

It would be a long tale to tell the history of Harvard 
College from its first charter of 1650 to the present 
day. Its charter lays down as its object, " the educa- 
tion of the English and Indian youth of the country 
in knowledge and godliness". Luckily that charter 
was never amended, and no more explicit legislation 
defined the requisites for " godliness ". Harvard College, 
no doubt, obeyed the prevalent theological impulses, 
but was not by its charter condemned to be a sectarian 
institution : it was saddled by no tests, and was free to 
develop with the life of the civil community around it. 
Its governing body was fixed to be a president, treasurer, 
and five Fellows ; the first officers were named, and it 
was provided that their places were to be filled by co- 
option. Above these was a large body of overseers, 
consisting originally of the governor, deputy -governor, 
and all magistrates of the jurisdiction, together with 
the five adjoining towns. This body of overseers had 
to approve the acts of the corporation of the college, 
and so possessed a right of veto. The progress of 
university reform at Harvard has been the work of 
converting this body of overseers into one which is 
more fitted to judge of educational questions. The 
efforts of the resident teachers were persistently directed 
to this end, and after various improvements on the 
original scheme, the election of overseers was finally, 



THE HARVARD ANNIVERSARY 285 

in 1865, committed to the graduates of the college. 
This is the nearest approach in America to the Euro- 
pean conception of a university as a self-governing 
corporation of graduates. 

This loose constitution of the college has been of 
great service to its development. It has been enabled 
to adapt itself to new requirements without needing 
any legislative interference. Its conflicts have been 
carried on in secret, and the obstacles in the way of its 
teachers have been overcome by the steady pressure 
of its executive officers. It is probably well that a 
university should not try too many experiments, and 
Harvard in recent days has certainly contributed a 
sufficient number of novelties for the attention of those 
busied with university education. Chief among them 
is the adoption of what is called the " elective system," 
by which each undergraduate is allowed to choose for 
himself the course of lectures which he attends, and 
obtains his degree by passing a satisfactory examina- 
tion at the end of each course. It is obvious that 
such a system demands a large body of teachers, 
careful organisation of subjects, and a regard to the 
various claims of different subjects, which has to be 
expressed in the lecture list rather than in the regula- 
tions for the final examinations, whereby in English 
universities students are compelled to go along the 
course prescribed, not by their individual teachers, but 
by the combined wisdom of the university. 

It is by this readiness to try experiments, as well as 
by the eminent teachers which Harvard has succeeded 
in attaching to herself, that she has come to be re- 
garded as the typical University of America. New 



286 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

England has always remained the centre of Ameri- 
can culture, and the presence of Mr. Lowell and Mr. 
Wendell Holmes fully vindicated for the New England 
of to-day her claims to literary supremacy. It is natural 
that the oldest and largest university of New England 
should be regarded, perhaps not without some jealousy, 
as occupying in America a place of her own somewhat 
above her sisters. Certainly Harvard cannot complain 
of want of loyalty on the part of her graduates, who 
flocked from every part of the continent to do honour 
to her anniversary. 

The proceedings of the commemoration began on 
5th November, when the members of the Legal As- 
sociation held a celebration of their own. Harvard 
University consists of what is called the College, which 
deals with those liberal studies which we know as litercB 
humaniores, and also various technical and professional 
schools, such as divinity, law and medicine in its various 
branches down to veterinary surgery. The graduates 
of each of these professional schools form associations 
of their own and meet from time to time. The 
lawyers, as being always desirous to speak, met to 
offer a tribute of eloquence by themselves, and listened 
first to an oration by Mr. Wendell Holmes, junior, 
Judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, on the 
organisation of legal studies ; afterwards they regaled 
themselves by a dinner seasoned with those good 
stories which belong as much to the American as to 
the English Bar. 

Saturday, the 6th, was given up to undergraduates, 
who had boat races and a football match, that they might 
show visitors their prowess. But, unlike English under- 



THE HARVARD ANNIVERSARY 287 

graduates, they also invited visitors to see how they 
were progressing towards the acquirement of the graces 
needed for actual life. They took possession of the 
university theatre, and delivered addresses and recited 
poems of their own with as much gravity and dignity 
as Mr. Lowell or Mr. Wendell Holmes. The traditions 
of American life sink deep, and the pattern is every- 
where the same. Two orators and two poets, chosen 
by vote of the undergraduates themselves, in turns 
commemorated the glories of Harvard, criticised its 
system, and exhorted to emulation of its past. The 
most perfect decorum prevailed ; in fact any one 
who had witnessed the pandemonium of the Oxford 
Encaenia could not fail to marvel that 'these things 
should be. The Harvard undergraduates, no doubt, 
felt the responsibility of the occasion. They were 
taking their part in a great celebration, and were 
doing their duty to themselves and their Alma Mater. 
Nothing could exceed the order with which they entered 
the theatre in a long procession and took their places. 
The proceedings began with prayer, offered by one of 
the oldest members of the college staff; an under- 
graduate choir and an undergraduate orchestra filled the 
intervals between the orations. It was impossible not 
to feel that the greater freedom allowed to American 
undergraduates led them to recognise earlier than do 
English youths the responsibilities of manhood. 

On Sunday, the 7th, the scene of the commemora- 
tion festivities was naturally transferred to the chapel. 
Harvard College is not only unsectarian but also 
undenominational, and has devised a simple form of 
service in which every one can take part, consisting of 



288 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

reading a psalm in alternate verses, a portion of Scrip- 
ture, an extempore prayer, and a sermon, interspersed 
with anthems and hymns, which were very effectively 
sung by a choir of undergraduates. A thoughtful and 
scholarly sermon was preached in the morning by 
Professor Peabody, of Harvard, and in the evening the 
chapel was crowded to the utmost by a throng eager 
to listen to the eloquence of the Rev. Philips Brooks. 
Both sermons dwelt upon the history of the college, 
and traced the steps by which its Puritan traditions 
had broadened into culture without sacrificing their 
essential value. Throughout all the proceedings of the 
commemoration, including those of the undergraduates, 
there was shown a free criticism of Puritanism, which 
was marked by a breadth of historical discernment and 
impartiality, which was alike generous and true. 

The general interest centred in the proceedings of 
to-day (Monday), when the grounds of the college 
were thronged by an eager crowd of guests, and a no 
less eager crowd of people of every class, anxious for 
a sight of the President and of Mrs. Cleveland. The 
interest shown in Mrs. Cleveland is indeed remarkable, 
and is due to the fact that no other President has been 
married during his term of office. The people seem 
to feel that the marriage of their chief magistrate was 
an event in which they had a right to share, and Mrs. 
Cleveland has awakened an amount of popular curiosity 
as great perhaps as was ever excited by a lady in any 
country. Her movements are all chronicled in detail, 
and her slightest gestures are recorded for the benefit of 
all men, but always in terms of sympathetic admiration. 

It was some time before all the guests were marshalled 



THE HARVARD ANNIVERSARY 289 

in order of procession ; but all were ready a little before 
eleven o'clock, when President Cleveland took his place 
in the line, accompanied by the Governor of Massachu- 
setts and attended by an escort. The procession then 
moved to the theatre through a dense throng of people, 
who showed the good humour and orderly behaviour for 
which an American crowd is proverbial. There was a 
very small display of soldiers and only a scanty body 
of policemen, but the volunteer marshals of the uni- 
versity had no difficulty in keeping the way clear ; 
occasionally a few enthusiasts ran through the line of 
procession, but never so as to cause any interruption. 
The warmth of the reception given to President Cleve- 
land was unmistakable ; both by people and under- 
graduates on the line of march and by the graduates 
inside the theatre, he was cheered to the echo. Perhaps 
the prevalent position in politics of the educated classes 
represented by the graduates of Harvard is that of 
the " mugwump," who believes in measures and men 
rather than in the threadbare principles of party 
and the devices of the caucus. Such men respect 
President Cleveland's honesty, and give him their 
hearty support in his difficult position, because they 
believe that he is in earnest in the cause of Civil 
Service reform, which they judge to be the question of 
chief importance at the present. Though the occasion 
was in no way political, yet the reception accorded to 
the President cannot fail to have a decided significance 
in politics, and its warmth seemed to surprise even 
himself. 

When the throng of some 1,500 people had entered 
the theatre, the proceedings of the day began with 

19 



290 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

prayer, and a few remarks from the President of the 
Alumni, under whose auspices the proceedings were 
conducted. The alumni, or graduates, of Harvard 
form themselves into a voluntary association to hold 
an annual gathering at Commencement, when degrees 
are conferred. They take upon themselves the social 
part of the proceedings, and their President, elected 
annually, not the President of the University, acts as 
chairman. In this way the officials of the university 
are relieved to a great measure from the details of 
social duty which are so irksome to busy men. The 
President of the Alumni called on Mr. Lowell, who 
delivered an oration which deserves to rank among 
the most finished productions of one who stands in 
the highest class of men of letters. It was a mixture 
of wit and wisdom, alike dignified and graceful, with- 
out any obtrusion of personality or assumption of 
prophetic insight, but full of the mitis sapientia of one 
who has read much and seen much, and in the light 
of large culture exhibited the due proportions of the 
lessons of the day. Mr. Lowell's opening allusion 
to the 250th anniversary of his college struck the note 
of ample yet measured appreciation of the achieve- 
ments of his country, which ran through his address. 
" Ours is a new country in more senses than one, and, 
like children when they are fancying themselves this or 
that, we have to play very hard to believe that we are 
old." In the same measured strain he spoke of the 
power of historic associations in the Old World. " I 
never felt the workings of this spell so acutely as in 
those grey seclusions of the college quadrangles and 
cloisters of Oxford and Cambridge, conscious of vener- 



THE HARVARD ANNIVERSARY 291 

able associations, and whose very stones seemed happier 
for being there. Are we to suppose that these memories 
were . less dear and gracious to the Puritan scholars at 
whose instigation this college was founded than to that 
other Puritan who sang in the dim, religious light) 
the long-drawn aisles and fretted vaults which those 
memories recalled ? " Starting from this, he drew a 
striking picture of the early Puritans and sketched 
gracefully the early history of Harvard College, its 
first aims and its endeavours to convert the Indians, 
who, however, " showed far greater natural predisposi- 
tion for disfurnishing the outside of other people's heads 
than furnishing the inside of their own ". He passed 
to the time when Harvard College was chiefly devoted 
to the education of Puritan clergy, of whom he gave 
a genial and humorous sketch : " They gave two 
sermons every Sunday in the year, and of a measure 
that would seem ruinously liberal to these less stalwart 
days, when scarce ten parsons together could lift the 
stones of Dromed, which they hurled at Satan with 
the easy precision of lifelong practice". Coming to 
more modern times, he spoke of the Harvard of to-day, 
its studies and their future. With a graceful absence 
of dogmatism, he defined as the office of a university 
" to distribute the true bread of life — the pane degli 
angeli^ as Dante called it — and to breed the appetite 
for it. Give us science, too, but give us first of all 
and last of all the science that ennobles life and makes 
it generous." Presently he passed to the relation of 
a university with national life, and his words became 
weighty : " Democracy must show its capacity for 
producing not a higher average man, but the highest 



292 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

possible type of manhood in all its manifold varieties, 
or it is a failure. No matter what it does for the body, 
if it does not in some sort satisfy the inextinguishable 
passion of the soul for something that lifts life away 
from prose, from the common and the vulgar, it is a 
failure. Has it done this ? Is it doing this, or trying 
to do it ? Not yet, I think." From this he proceeded 
to draw out eloquently the nature of the work of culture 
in a democratic society and in democratic politics. 
This led to a graceful allusion to President Cleveland : 
*' We have no politics here, but the sons of Harvard 
all belong to the party which admires courage, strength 
of purpose, and fidelity to duty, and which respects, 
wherever he may be found, the Justum et tenacem 
propositi virum^ who knows how to withstand the 
Civium ardor prava jubentium. He has left the 
helm of State to be with us here, and so long as it is 
entrusted to his hands we are sure that, should the 
storm come, he will say, with Seneca's pilot, 'O Neptune, 
you may save me if you will ; you may sink me if you 
will ; but whatever happen, I shall keep my rudder 
true '." 

This reference to the President awakened renewed 
enthusiasm among the audience, and it was some time 
before Dr. Holmes could read his poem, which he did 
with a vigour and animation surprising in a man of 
the age of seventy-seven and not endowed with a strong 
physical frame. The poem, as was natural, was mainly 
local in its character, and its alternations of serious and 
mirthful allusions were followed with keen interest. 

When this was finished President Eliot conferred 
a number of honorary degrees on the distinguished 



THE HARVARD ANNIVERSARY 293 

guests of the university. This ceremony was of the 
utmost simplicity, but the dignity of President Eliot's 
manner as he described in a few words the claim of 
each recipient made the proceedings far more impres- 
sive than the antiquated ceremonial still followed at 
our universities. As President EHot named each of 
the new doctors, he rose in his seat and bowed in 
acknowledgment, so that some forty degrees were con- 
ferred in twenty minutes, without the aid of pompous 
Latin compliments. The list comprised the chief 
American representatives of the various departments 
of knowledge, and among Englishmen Dr. Taylor of 
St. John's College, Cambridge, Professor Creighton of 
Emmanuel College, and Sir Lyon Playfair as represent- 
ing the University of Edinburgh. 

It was two o'clock before the proceedings in the 
theatre were over, and at half-past two the procession 
formed again to march to the great hall for dinner. 
The hall at Harvard is a truly noble building, which 
with some difficulty was made capable of holding 1,200 
guests. The repast was simple in the extreme ; there 
was no wine on the table, and the eating was soon 
over. It was a refreshing contrast to the uncomfort- 
able grandeur of English public dinners. The audience 
had come to listen, and did not come to waste time 
needlessly. There was no formality ; cigars were 
speedily lighted, and every one prepared to endure 
speeches as long as speeches were forthcoming. Even 
the departure of the President at half-past four did not 
break up the company, which sat without any display 
of weariness till half-past seven. Truly the Americans 
are a patient, much-enduring race. 



294 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Many of the speeches were excellent in their way, 
but none were of general interest, save that of Pre- 
sident Cleveland, who, with great modesty, deplored 
his lack of university education, and exhorted men of 
learning to take a greater part in public affairs. " Any 
disinclination," he said, " on the part of the most learned 
and cultured of our citizens to mingle in public affairs, 
and the consequent abandonment of political activity 
to those who have but little regard for the student and 
the scholar, are not favourable conditions under a 
Government such as ours. And if they have existed 
to a damaging extent, recent events appear to indicate 
that the education and conservatism of the land are to 
be hereafter more plainly heard in the expression of the 
popular will." He went on to speak with obvious 
signs of emotion of the duties of his office, and spoke 
sternly of the tendency towards personal slander which 
was too often seen in a section of the American Press. 
The obvious sincerity of the President's speech pro- 
duced a great impression on the audience, and he 
departed amid a general ovation. 

When the banquet was at an end it was already 
dark, and the guests adjourned to witness a torch-light 
procession which had been organised entirely by the 
undergraduates. Harvard has not the historic story 
of Heidelberg to represent in pageantry, and preferred 
to take a humorous view of its past. The youth of a 
democratic State made sport of the doubtful ancestry 
of their founder. John Harvard's statue was borne 
in the procession surrounded by a group labelled 
" John Harvard's Pas," a butcher, a grocer, a cooper, 
in reference to the results of recent research which 



THE HARVARD ANNIVERSARY 295 

have shown him to have had a father and two step- 
fathers who followed these trades in England. The 
oldest printing press in the college was carried on 
another waggon, and a coach filled with passengers, 
dressed in the fashion of 1750, recalled the perilous 
journeys of former days. The solitary Indian graduate 
of the college seemed somewhat uncomfortable in his 
isolation. Transparencies with current undergraduate 
jokes provoked the laughter of the initiated ; but all 
could admire the stalwart bearing of the 1,500 youths 
who marched in perfect order with their torches. Each 
division was clad in appropriate costumes, some in the 
old Puritan dress, some as Washington's volunteers, 
some in military, some in naval uniforms, while the 
law students wore the gowns and wigs which are more 
familiar in England than in America. The picturesque 
procession, with its volleys of cheers for the President, 
Mrs. Cleveland, the university officials, and others, 
defiled for two hours through the streets of Cambridge, 
and ended with a display of fireworks, which lit up the 
dignified group of the college buildings. 

The chief impression left on the spectator was the 
homeliness, the simplicity and the heartiness of the 
entire proceedings. There had been no thought of 
grandeur, no waste of time in elaborate preparations. 
The men of Harvard welcomed their guests and gave 
them of their best with abundant cordiality ; but Har- 
vard did not try to disguise its work-day look, and was 
content to appeal to those who knew and esteemed it 
for its work's sake. It was clear that it did not appeal 
in vain, and that it was strong in the affections of a vast 
body of its graduates, and in the kindly regard of its 



296 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

academic rivals. An Englishman might meditate on 
Mr. Lowell's eloquent tribute to the historic glories of 
Oxford and Cambridge, and think that Harvard is 
not without compensation for their absence. In Eng- 
land the alumni of the old universities feel that their 
universities are immemorial institutions which need 
little help from them. The alumni of Harvard felt 
that the college belonged to themselves, had been en- 
riched by the munificence of many who were present, 
and looked to them all for the mean's of increasing her 
future usefulness. 



297 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW. 

It is easy to mistake the significance of any ceremony, 
to dismiss it as so much empty show, or to account 
for it on grounds of policy. No one who used at 
Moscow the slightest power of sympathetic observa- 
tion would accept either of these explanations of the 
ceremony of the coronation. It may be true that the 
form of government which Russia has inherited lends 
itself to display ; but this display is very far from 
being empty of meaning. It may be true that Russia 
has a large Oriental frontier ; but Orientals are not to 
be impressed by any palpable imitation of their own 
methods. The Russian coronation is a ceremony of 
great antiquity, and expresses the sentiments of the 
Russian people. It is an event in the history of the 
nation, an event of great importance, which they wish 
to realise in a pictorial and dramatic form, so that its 
full impression may be carried over the wide extent 
of territory which all alike is their country and is kept 
together under one ruler. 

There are different conceptions of the State, but 
those conceptions range between two primary ideas — 
those of a family and of a joint-stock company. 
Changes in a board of directors require little out- 
ward notice. Even the election of a new chairman 
does not call for more than a public dinner. But the 



298 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

accession of a new head of the national family is an 
event which appeals directly to every member. It 
awakens all the memories of the past, and kindles 
manifold hopes for the future. It is a great epoch in 
the national life, and must be expressed with fitting 
dignity and solemnity. In doing honour to their new 
Emperor the Russian people feel that they are doing 
honour to themselves. 

There is probably no people which has such a strong 
historic consciousness as the Russians. There has 
been no great break in their development, no new 
object of their common effort. They have not under- 
gone the transformation from an agricultural to an 
industrial civilisation, which puts much into the back- 
ground, and fills men's minds with new problems. 
There has been to them no sudden extension of 
boundaries. In their vast plains they always knew 
the world was large, and that numbers of their brethren 
might be added to their family — brethren already like- 
minded with themselves. Their past history is a long 
record of struggles after union, which might make 
them strong against barbarous invaders, of untold 
sufferings endured^with patient perseverance, of mo- 
notonous surroundings and constant conflict with 
churlish nature. In all this there are but two things 
that helped them — their Church, which bound them 
together and gave them courage to endure ; their 
national leaders, who trained them into strength, drove 
back their foes, and welded them into a mighty nation. 
Indeed, there were not two but one, for Church and 
State are indissolubly connected. There was no ec- 
clesiastical system with an independent head whose 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 299 

claims might divide their allegiance. They received 
their Christianity from Byzantium, not from Rome. 
Their, ruler inherits the claims of no Holy Roman 
emperor crowned by a Pope, but is the representative 
of the rulers born in the purple chamber of the 
Bosphorus, who never had to divide his authority with 
a bishop whose sway extended beyond his realm. 

All this is not mere ancient history, but is living 
truth to the Russian peasant. He may not be able 
to read or write, but he knows about his country's 
past. The nomadic habits of the people have always 
been remarkable, and have at times caused difficulties. 
The melancholy of a vast expanse with no natural 
barriers has always attracted men to ramble. The 
Russian peasants go on pilgrimages, men and women 
alike. When family ties cease to be pressing, they 
take their bundles on their back and their staves in 
their hands, and set forth to visit the holy places. 
Many go to the Holy Land ; more to Mount Athos, 
passing Constantinople on the way, and gazing with 
longing eyes on St. Sophia. Crowds of the less ad- 
venturous visit the monasteries and churches of Russia 
itself, and venerate the tombs of the saints. And 
these saints are not merely holy men who withdrew 
from the world at the call of devotion. They are 
national heroes, connected with some great national 
victory. Did not St. Sergius inspire Demetrius of 
the Don to win at Koulikovo in 1380 the first great 
battle against the Tartar hordes? The crowds of 
pilgrims who daily, and all day long, throng the church 
of the great monastery of the Troitsa, where Sergius 
lies at rest, know well his story and that of many 



300 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

another saint and hero. Kieff, Novgorod, and Mos- 
cow, all have their tales to tell, which are well learned. 
There can be few villages in Russia which have not a 
returned pilgrim, who, sitting by the stove on the 
long winter nights, tells of what he has seen and 
heard, and weaves the story of Russia's history into the 
life of his hearers. The streets of Moscow were full 
of pilgrims who had come to see the coronation of 
their "little father," the Emperor, not as spectators 
of a splendid spectacle, but as assisting at a great 
religious rite which closely concerned their country's 
weal. 

This strong sense of an historic past is expressed in 
the fact that coronations take place in Moscow, the 
city which is hallowed to the Russian mind as the 
centre of national resistance to their foes, sacrificed to 
Tartars, Poles and French alike, but rising again with 
renewed splendour, and dearer for all that it had 
suffered. Petersburg may be the seat of Govern- 
ment, and the means of communication with the 
West ; but Moscow is the abiding home of Russian 
sentiment, the local centre round which patriotism 
gathers. It is from its situation and appearance 
worthy to be regarded as a symbol of a nation's growth. 
Some one, I believe, has said that there are only two 
cities in the world which tell at a glance their people's 
history — Moscow and London. An Englishman may 
well pause and reflect on the different memories which 
gather round the two ; one indicating the continuous 
and peaceful expansion of a people steadily growing 
into freedom and power, saved by its situation from 
foreign interference, and with communications open 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 301 

to all the world ; the other slowly struggling into ex- 
istence, as the only position of any strategical value 
in a country exposed to constant menace, and bearing 
the scars of many a bitter conflict. He cannot venture 
to measure a nation which had so different a past with 
the same rule that he would apply to himself. 

The site of Moscow tells its own story. It was 
built on a spot where was a piece of broken ground, 
through which the river Moskva ran in tortuous wind- 
ings, and afforded something like a defence to a tri- 
angular eminence, the broadest side of which dropped 
to the river. This was fortified and formed the Krem- 
lin, or Acropolis, of a little town which gathered round 
it, and gradually became the centre of resistance to 
the Tartars. The Kremlin still lies within the line of 
its old walls, and round it gathered another town, the 
Kitai Gorod, which also keeps its walls and towers. 
Round these grew the modern Moscow, and the stages 
in its growth are still distinctly marked. You can trace 
the process of gradual expansion round a definite centre. 
It is this which gives Moscow its distinctive features, 
and marks the Kremlin with a peculiar dignity of its 
own. It made the great city which lies round it, and 
Russia grew into a consciousness of its unity by the 
influence which Moscow supplied. There is no place 
in the world whose memories are so vital for the living 
history of a great nation. Moreover, its buildings have 
not been encroached upon. The palace stands, with 
the arsenal and the senate-house behind it. By its 
side are the three great cathedrals, a monastery, and 
rising above them all the lofty bell-tower. There are 
large open spaces, and from the terrace the full extent 



302 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

of Moscow can be seen. There is nothing to diminish 
the significance of the site itself or rob it of its unique 
interest. Nowhere are so many buildings of historical 
importance visible at once, and suffering from no 
interference. 

The stranger from the West, as he gazes for the 
first time on this scene, feels that he has passed out- 
side the circle of European experience, and has entered 
upon a new phase of culture which must be judged by 
canons of its own. The Kremlin Palace in itself 
resembles other buildings of the same kind ; but the 
numerous churches which he can see built up within 
it, and the others which surround it, tell of a striking 
difference between East and West. There is no one 
mighty building which claims by its size and magnifi- 
cence to be an overpowering memorial of the Christian 
faith. The palace has grown round churches older 
than itself, and has found room for them. The three 
churches outside are each of them small, and stand 
within a stone's-throw of one another. Each has its 
own special purpose. In one the Emperors are 
crowned ; another is set apart chiefly for marriages 
and baptisms ; the third contains the tombs of the 
Imperial family. Religion is regarded as inherent in 
man's nature, allied to his common and domestic life, 
something which need not be enforced from without, 
but which is personal and intimate. The monastery 
which stands near, is simply a large house arranged 
as such, with no air of severity or exclusiveness. It is 
an abode of men set apart for worship ; but their duty 
is only part of a common duty, and their life is part 
of the common life. As the eye ranges over the city 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 303 

beneath, it gathers the same impression. Countless 
little churches rise among ordinary buildings. Monas- 
teries . ring the city round, conspicuous by their tall 
bell-towers, and many of them girt with their old walls 
of defence, which tell that they were the fortresses of 
patriotism in evil times. The city is gay with bright 
colours. Its brick buildings are for the most part 
washed with pale pink or blue or red. Churches and 
monasteries are recognisable by their clusters of 
cupolas, gleaming with gold or green or blue enamel. 
The impression is unlike anything that can be seen 
in Western Europe. We are in a region where archi- 
tecture, the most truthful guide to the prevailing ideas 
on which common life is founded, betokens influences 
which are strange to us. We are reminded that Russian 
civilisation came from Byzantium, and followed a differ- 
ent course from ours. The West may have contributed 
its commodities and its ideas to the more modern 
buildings before us, but these have all been modified 
and adapted to more primitive ideas which were 
already firmly rooted. Nothing is more significant 
than the Renaissance porches appended to many 
churches ; they are obliged to revert to early, almost 
barbaric, forms of ornament, and hide their origin 
beneath an appearance of greater antiquity. 

These are outside impressions, but they serve to ex- 
plain the ceremony which drew to Moscow a crowd of 
representatives from every part of the world. Russia, 
at all events, is a great force, and it is well to try and 
understand it. No ceremony on such a scale as that 
of the coronation can exist merely as a ceremony. It 
has a profound meaning to the Russian mind as a 



304 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

memorial of national life. It does not take place 
vaguely anywhere and under any sort of surroundings. 
It is only intelligible with reference to its actual setting, 
which is a dominant element of all that actually took 
place. The coronation was not a series of festivities 
arbitrarily arranged, but was a continuous act, every 
part of which followed immemorial custom, and all 
had reference to a central idea. 

First of all it was necessary that the new ruler should 
come to Moscow, leaving behind the modern seat of 
government, and recognising the historic capital with 
its ancient traditions. This must be done formally, 
after due preparation. So on Monday, i8th May, the 
Imperial family arrived by train at Moscow, and took 
up their abode in the Petrovsky Palace, outside the 
city boundary, where two days were passed in com- 
parative privacy. In Moscow itself all was bustle and 
activity. The decorations were being completed, and 
every one was learning what part he had to play. 
Stages were being erected for spectators, and un- 
sightly scaffolding was being draped into shape. On 
Wednesday evening all was finished, and the people 
seemed to betake themselves to prayer. At seven 
o'clock the bells of all the churches tolled for a service, 
which was to last for four hours — a service of solemn 
prayer and intercession for the new ruler who was to 
enter to-morrow for his coronation. Every church was 
thronged with an eager and devout congregation. It 
was impossible to mistake the earnestness which was 
depicted on the faces of the throngs. The Russian is 
not ashamed of his religion. If the mood is on him 
he stops outside a church in the busy street, and bows 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 305 

himself in prayer. The passers-by make room for 
him, and it may be cross themselves as they see him. 
Inside a church each worshipper indulges in such 
demonstration of devotion as he thinks fit or can find 
room for. He follov^s no ritual instructions, but the 
emotions which arise in his own mind. 

It was with a solemn sense of religious duty that 
the main mass of the crowd gathered on the morning 
of Thursday, 21st May, in the streets along which the 
Imperial procession was to come. It was a beautiful 
sunny morning, and every house was gay with flags. 
I was told of a typical conversation in the crowd. One 
man remarked to his neighbour that it was lucky that 
the day was fine. " Do you not think," was the exalted 
answer, " that the Lord knows the day on which His 
anointed comes to His holy place ? " It was no mere 
pageant which the people were assembled to behold : 
it was an acceptance on their part of a ruler who 
represented to them power making for righteousness. 
Every street and window was crowded with spectators 
when at midday the tolling of the great bell on the 
Kremlin announced that the Emperor had left the 
Petrovsky Palace and was on his way. Presently the 
bell, which had been tolling slowly, quickened into 
a lively peal, which was re-echoed by every bell in 
Moscow. Minute guns were fired, and a crash of 
sound rang through the air. The bells of Moscow 
are famous for their size and tone alike, and when all 
are rung together the effect is at first overpowering. 
It was the sign that the Emperor had entered the 
boundary of Moscow, and was advancing through his 
capital. His progress was slow, for he had to receive 

20 



3o6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

many signs of homage. The governor of Moscow 
met him at the gateway and offered bread and salt — 
the old symbol of welcome. Farther on the munici- 
pality tendered a similar offering, and along the route 
were deputations representing the various elements of 
Russian life, who each did homage in some character- 
istic form. The procession itself was headed by mounted 
soldiers in splendid uniforms ; then came the chiefs of 
the Russian nobility ; the Asiatic princes in the garb 
of their several countries ; the officials of the Imperial 
court. Before the Emperor rode a troop of Horse 
Guards. The Emperor rode by himself, attired in a 
simple uniform, mounted on a white Arab steed. At 
some distance behind him came his staff; then the 
members of the Imperial faniily and the representatives 
of foreign. Powers. The Dowager Empress and the 
Empress followed in gilded carriages drawn by six 
horses ; after them came the ladies of the Imperial 
family. A guard of soldiers brought up the rear. 

All this was splendour such as might adorn any 
other royal procession, though none perhaps could 
bring together on so large a scale such varied elements 
drawn alike from East and West. In fact, this pro- 
cession showed more clearly than anything else 
the vast scale on which everything was done. The 
number of horsemen, the universal magnificence, 
the varieties of costume were astounding. But as the 
Emperor approached the Kremlin the object of the 
procession was emphasised. At the entrance to the 
Kitai Gorod, the Emperor dismounted and waited for 
the Empress. Together they entered the Iberian 
Chapel, which contains an ancient picture of the 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 307 

Virgin, regarded with peculiar devotion by the people. 
The Emperor was coming to the holy places, and 
must, behave as became a devout member of the 
orthodox Church. But his long progress was now 
nearing its end. He had left the Petrovsky Palace at 
midday ; it was half-past two before he reached the 
Kremlin, where another throng was awaiting him. In 
the great courtyard were erected stages in which were 
placed the Russian nobles, and in front of them the 
representatives of the various Eastern peoples under 
the Emperor's sway. The Ameer of Bokhara and 
the Khan of Khiva sat with Oriental impassiveness, 
clad in magnificent brocades of red and green. 
Roman Catholic archbishops, Armenian patriarchs, 
Lutheran superintendents sat side by side. Next 
to them were lamas from the Thibetan provinces, 
resplendent in yellow satin, with curious metal head- 
dresses, and Mussulmans from the Caucasus in more 
familiar attire. In the adjoining stage were Russian 
nuns, whose sober black costume formed a strong 
contrast. Beyond were rows of school-children, re- 
presenting various charitable institutions. In the 
open square were members of industrial guilds, who 
sat upon the ground with patience, awaiting the arrival 
of the procession. In the middle of the square was 
a raised platform with a balustrade, running between 
the three cathedrals, and outside it stood a row of 
soldiers on guard. The sun shone brightly, and threw 
into brilliant relief the groups of ecclesiastics, vested 
in rich brocades of cloth of gold, who filled the porches 
of the churches. Along the platform paced the 
marshals of the court, in uniforms of black and white, 



3o8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

deeply embroidered with gold lace. It was a sign 
that the Emperor was drawing nigh when some 
servants swept the red cloth that covered the plat- 
form. The incense was kindled in the censers, and 
the Metropolitans took their places, with crosses and 
icons. The cortege all dismounted, and went on foot 
to the churches. First came five marshals, bearing 
huge gilt staves surmounted with jewels. Then the 
Emperor advanced between the two Empresses, whose 
flowing trains were borne by pages. Next came the 
grand dukes, and behind them the grand duchesses 
and ladies of the Imperial household. Then came the 
representatives of foreign princes with their suites. It 
was a splendid blaze of colour when they filled the 
platform and all the spectators had risen to their 
feet. 

The Emperor advanced to the porch of the Cathedral 
of the Assumption, where he and the Empresses were 
first aspersed with holy water. Then they kissed the 
cross and greeted the Metropolitans. This was in 
itself a significant sign of the relations between Church 
and State. They clasped hands, and, each bending, 
kissed the other's hand at the same moment. The 
Emperor kissed the hand of the Metropolitan as his 
bishop : the Metropolitan kissed the Emperor's hand 
as his ruler : the recognition was simultaneous. Then 
the clergy and choir preceded the Emperor into the 
church. The bells suddenly ceased to ring, and 
caused a strange sense of silence, in which was heard 
floating through the air the strains of the " Te Deum " 
sung by the choir inside the church. After a brief 
service the Emperor reappeared, and the procession 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 309 

re-formed itself and proceeded to the Cathedral of the 
Archangel, where the Emperor and Empresses were 
greeted in like manner. Here they entered the church 
alone, and spent a short time in silent prayer at the 
tombs of their Imperial ancestors. Then they departed 
by the opposite door, and went to the remaining church, 
where again a few prayers were said. Now that his 
devotions were over, the Emperor mounted the Red 
Staircase leading to the Kremlin Palace, and, amid 
the enthusiastic acclamations of the crowd and the 
roar of cannon, took proud possession of the Imperial 
abode. 

Thus was accomplished the first act in a great 
national drama. It was the solemn home-coming of 
the father of his people. He came to take possession 
of what was his own, but was held under the sanction 
of the immemorial traditions of the family which he 
was called to rule. Those traditions were embodied 
in the national religion, and it was through the church 
that the Emperor reached his palace. The crowds 
along the way all had their eyes turned to the end of 
the Emperor's progress. When the joy-bells ceased 
to toll, men knew that the Emperor had entered the 
church, and they joined their prayers with his. No 
sooner had Russia received the guarantee of his accept- 
ance of his position as held under God, than he gave 
the further guarantee of acceptance of the historical 
usages of his country, by praying at the tombs of his 
predecessors. i\s the declared upholder of the prin- 
ciples of national life and of its continuous policy, the 
Emperor mounted the steps which led to the palace 
where his forefathers had lived and ruled. 



3IO HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

The day following was spent by the Emperor in 
the reception of envoys extraordinary. When this 
concession had been made to necessary courtesy, the 
proceedings of the coronation were resumed. The 
Emperor and Empress spent the afternoons and even- 
ings of the next three days in preparation for the 
reception of the Holy Communion, as is customary 
to all members of the Orthodox Church. Moreover, 
they did so in a recognisable manner by withdrawing 
from the Kremlin Palace, and spending the evenings 
quietly in the Alexandrina Palace outside Moscow by 
the Sparrows Hills. Meanwhile, each morning the 
coronation was proclaimed at the gates of the ancient 
city with all the pageantry of state. After the pro- 
clamation had been read, beautifully printed copies of 
it were thrown among the crowd ; but such was the 
eagerness to obtain the precious documents that they 
were generally torn in pieces by a multitude of hands, 
and were afterwards carefully joined together and re- 
stored to some resemblance of their original form. 
On Sunday, 24th May, the Imperial banner was blessed 
with a religious service in one of the chapels of the 
Kremlin, and the Emperor swore allegiance to it as 
any soldier would do. In fact, during those days the 
Emperor was solemnly discharging all the duties of 
an ordinary Russian subject. On Monday the regalia 
were brought from the Treasury and placed in readi- 
ness for use, with a religious ceremony suited to the 
occasion. In the evening all the churches were again 
crowded with congregations, earnestly praying for God's 
blessing on the Emperor who was to be crowned on 
the morrow. 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 311 

At daybreak on 26th May the Kremlin was sur- 
rounded by a serious throng, through whom those 
privileged to enter slowly made their way. A Russian 
crowd is always quiet and speaks softly ; it is also 
orderly and kindly. There was genuine magnanimity 
displayed by the inhabitants of Moscow, who would 
say with a smile, " We are glad that you strangers 
should see as much as you can ; we can see very little, 
because we have to wait till all the guests who have 
come from a distance are provided for before there is 
any room for us ". The question of finding room for 
all who wished to witness the coronation would have 
baffled human device, and those outside the Kremlin 
wall had nothing to see save the arrival of guests and 
officials in their splendid uniforms. Inside the Kremlin 
the stands were rapidly filled by those who had been 
lucky enough to secure tickets, and every available foot 
of standing ground was occupied by the people. The 
Cathedral of the Assumption, in which the ceremony 
was to take place, seemed marvellously disproportion- 
ate to the preparations which were being made outside. 
It looked like a small chapel, and indeed only admitted 
the presence of some six hundred, who slowly took 
their places in perfect order. 

Yet much of the impressiveness of the ceremony 
itself was due to the smallness of the building, which 
gave an air of intimacy to everything that was done, 
and harmonised with the sense of family relationship 
which underlay it all. The cathedral stands in the 
very centre of the Kremlin ; and though it has been 
rebuilt more than once, it still occupies the old site 
and reproduces the ancient ornamentation. Like all 



312 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS . 

Eastern churches, it seems disproportionately high. 
Four round pillars rise aloft, bearing the five gilded 
domes which surmount the pile. They, as well as all 
the walls and roof, are covered with frescoes painted 
on a gold background in the simple traditional style 
which has prevailed in sacred art in Russia. On the 
north wall is represented the life of the Virgin ; on the 
west wall is the Last Judgment ; on the south wall are 
depicted the Seven General Councils of the undivided 
Church. On the pillars are the saints and martyrs, 
and on the roof choirs of adoring angels. The east 
end shows a shallow choir, cut off by the inconostass, 
which rises the full height of the church, and conceals 
the altar, save when the central door is open. Along 
this screen are arranged formal rows of pictures, one 
below another. Highest are ranged the patriarchs, 
with God the Father in the midst ; next come the 
prophets, grouped round the Virgin and the Son ; 
then are represented the chief events in the life of our 
Lord ; below He is in glory surrounded by angels and 
apostles. On the lowest line, level with the eye, are 
placed the most ancient and venerated pictures : the 
"Virgin of Vladimir," brought by the first Christian 
ruler from Kherson, and believed to have been painted 
by St. Luke ; a picture of our Lord sent by the Eastern 
Emperor Manuel ; the death of the Virgin, painted 
by the Metropolitan Peter. These are all adorned 
with jewels of countless value ; and amid the silver 
shrines which surround them and other pictures gleam 
the Royal Gates, on which are painted the Evangelists 
and the Annunciation. Wherever the eye wanders 
through the building it lights on something which aims 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 313 

at teaching the meaning and history of the Church, 
and its connexion with the individual life and the life 
of the Russian people. There is a persistent intensity 
of meaning, from the influence of which it is hard to 
escape. 

The stillness inside the cathedral, where the con- 
gregation slowly assembled, was a great contrast to 
the bustle outside. The ecclesiastics performed their 
offices of preparation for the Communion, the choir 
assembled, invited guests came in one by one. Then 
the diplomatic corps entered and took their places, the 
ladies on one side, the gentlemen on the other. They 
were followed by the special representatives of foreign 
courts and the members of the Imperial family, who 
were similarly placed. The clergy left the choir and 
went to meet the Dowager Empress, who was escorted 
from the palace beneath a canopy of crimson and gold. 
She was conducted to her throne against the southern 
pillar of the nave, next to the Emperor's throne, but a 
little behind. The officials who had taken part in the 
procession defiled through the church, where there was 
no room for them to stay. Next came the bearers of 
the regalia, which were borne in state from the Throne 
Room in the palace. Soon the sound of drums and 
trumpets announced that the Emperor was on his way. 
Again a body of deputies and representatives of the 
towns and provinces of the empire entered the south 
door of the cathedral, escorting the Emperor, and, 
after a hurried glance at the glittering throng therein 
assembled, passed out at the north door to join in the 
service in their hearts outside ; a few only, to represent 
the peasants, were found a place among the choir. 



314 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

The Emperor and Empress advanced under a velvet 
canopy, their path was sprinkled with holy water, and 
when they reached the centre of the church they bowed 
three times to the iconostass before mounting the steps 
to their thrones. The dark uniform of the Emperor 
and the white dress of the Empress, whose hair hung 
in plaits on either shoulder, were the simplest costumes 
in the building. 

It was just ten o'clock when the ceremony was begun 
by the choir chanting Psalm ci. : " My song shall be 
of mercy and judgment ". The clergy formed a line 
on either side of the iconostass ; beyond them stood 
the Ministers of State, reaching up the steps towards 
the dais which stood in the centre of the church. On 
each side of it were placed the Imperial family and 
foreign princes ; behind them were the ambassadors 
and the high officers and chief nobles of the empire, 
the ladies on the south side and the men on the north. 
Behind the Imperial dais with its three thrones, each 
surmounted by a canopy, the officials and nobles were 
ranged on a stage which mounted up so as to afford a 
full view. Special favour was shown to representatives 
of the press, who were placed against the western wall. 
The church was as full as it could be, but there was no 
crowding nor confusion. Everything was simple and 
intelligible in the arrangements. There stood the 
Emperor in the midst of the church, surrounded by 
representatives of his empire and of the world, awaiting 
the solemn moment which was to seal the responsibility 
of his office. 

Exquisite was the chanting of the psalm by a choir 
trained to admirable precision, because no accompani- 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 315 

ment is allowed in the Eastern Church. But music is 
the special gift of the Russian people, who wile away 
the long winter evenings in song, and pour into it all 
the melancholy and passion of their souls. Their 
popular music is not different from their church music ; 
old motives are elaborated and simplified ; but all is 
simple, melodious and pathetic, rendered with deep 
feeling and the utmost care. While the voices rose 
and fell in solemn cadence, and struck the keynote 
of the solemnity that was to follow, the regalia were 
placed in position on a little table by the Emperor's 
seat. When the psalm was ended, the Metropolitan of 
St. Petersburg stood- before the Emperor and reminded 
him that he must profess himself before his subjects 
as a true member of the Holy Orthodox Church. 
He ended, almost abruptly, as to a child saying his 
Catechism: "What is thy belief?" In answer, the 
Emperor in a loud and clear voice recited the Nicene 
Creed. When he had done, the Metropolitan, accom- 
panied by all the bishops, softly said, " The blessing 
of the Holy Ghost be with thee ". Very significant 
was thia prelude to the ceremony. Great as might be 
the Imperial claims afterwards, it was through the door 
of the Church that he entered upon them. The one 
guarantee which he gave to his people was the guarantee 
of fidelity to the Church of the nation. 

When this had been done, the choir softly sang an 
invocation to the Holy Spirit. Then a deacon, with 
the cry " Let us in peace pray to the Lord," began a 
Litany of intercession for the Church and people, and 
their ruler. His magnificent bass voice rolled through 
the church, while the choir's response, " Lord, have 



3i6 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

mercy upon us," sounded like a far-off echo. The 
Litany ended in thanksgiving, and as the strains of 
the choir died away the deacon directed the congre- 
gation to what was to follow by a cry, " Wisdom, let 
us attend," the usual introduction to the reading of 
Scripture. Then lessons were read, one from Isaiah 
xlix. 13-20, another from the Epistle to the Romans 
xiii. 1-7, and finally from the Gospel according to St. 
Matthew xxii. 15-22. Due religious preparation had 
now been made for the coronation itself, and the 
Emperor ordered the Imperial mantle to be brought. 
This was done by two Metropolitans, and as it was 
placed on the Emperor's shoulders the third Metro- 
politan exclaimed, " In the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ". Again the first 
step in the assumption of the Imperial dignity was 
taken under the protection and sanction of the Church, 
and the first sounds that fell upon the Emperor's ear 
afterwards were the deacon's cry, " Let us pray to the 
Lord," and the choir's response, " Lord, have mercy 
upon us ". Before proceeding farther the Emperor 
was reminded of the source of all power, and bowed 
his head while the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg 
advanced and placed his hands crosswise on the bent 
head, and prayed that the symbolical acts which were 
to follow might not be void : " Make thy faithful 
servant, the mighty Lord Nicolas Alexandrovitch, 
whom Thou hast set as Emperor over Thy people, 
worthy to be anointed with the oil of gladness : clothe 
him with power from on high ; set upon his head a 
crown of precious stone, and bestow on him length of 
days. Give him in his right hand the sceptre of 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 317 

salvation ; set him upon the throne of righteousness ; 
defend him with the whole armour of the Holy Spirit ; 
strengthen his arm ; subdue before him all warlike 
barbarian peoples ; plant in his heart Thy fear and 
compassion towards all his subjects." The Emperor 
then asked for the crown, and, standing with it for a 
moment in his hand, placed it upon his head. It was 
a mighty crown of diamonds and pearls, divided into 
two parts, symbolising the Eastern and Western Em- 
pires ; the two parts were joined by a superb ruby, 
from which sprung a cross of pearls. The Metropolitan 
addressed him : " Emperor of all Russia, this visible 
and tangible adornment of thy head is a manifest sign 
that Christ, the invisible King, crowns thee head of all 
the Russian people". In like manner the Emperor 
took in his right hand the sceptre, and in his left the 
orb of empire, and was reminded that they were 
symbols of the power of government. When this 
was done the Emperor stood for a space, clad in all 
the insignia of his office, the undisputed ruler of his 
vast dominion, crowned by his own hand, and respon- 
sible to God alone. It was a moment of incomparable 
dramatic effect, overpowering in its significance. 

The next act came as a relief, and brought back the 
tense feelings of all to the simple elements of human 
life. The Autocrat of All the Russias could not 
endure his solitary grandeur. He laid down his 
sceptre and globe, and beckoned to the Empress, who 
rose and knelt before him. Taking his crown from 
his head he touched her forehead with it, as a token 
that she must help him by sharing his burden. Then 
he placed on her head the small diadem which was to 



3i8 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

be hers, wrapped round her the purple mantle, and 
fastened round her neck the collar of the order of St. 
Andrew. She returned to her throne, and the Emperor, 
again taking the sceptre and the globe, sat in his throne, 
while the deacon, in tones throbbing with exultant 
joy, proclaimed the Imperial titles. Louder and louder 
rose his voice as the long list went on, till it rolled 
through the building and broke upon the ear in almost 
overwhelming waves of sound. Rarely could the 
majestic effect of territorial names be more distinctly 
recognised, or more magnificently expressed : " To our 
mighty Lord, crowned of God, Nicolas Alexandrovitch, 
Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, of Moscow, 
Kiefif, Vladimir, Novgorod, Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of 
Astrachan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of the 
Tauric Chersonese, Tsar of Georgia ; Lord of Pskoff ; 
Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia 
and Finland ; Prince of Esthonia, Livonia, Curland 
and Semgallen, of Bielostok, Coria, Tver, Ingria, Perm, 
Viatka, Bulgaria and other lands ; Lord and Grand 
Duke of Nijni Novgorod, of Tchernigoff, Riazan, Polo- 
telsk, Rostoff, Jaroslavz, Bielolersk, Udoria, Obdoria, 
Condia, Vitebsk, Mstislaff and all northern lands ; 
Ruler and Lord of the Iverskian, Kartalian and 
Kabardinskian lands, as of the region of Armenia ; 
Ruler of the Circassian and Hill princes and other 
lords ; Heir of Norway ; Duke of Schleswig Holstein, 
Stornmarn, Ditmarsch and Oldenburg ; grant, O 
Lord, a happy and peaceful life, health and safety 
and prosperity in all good, victory and triumph over 
all his foes ; and preserve him for many years." The 
choir took up the refrain '' For many years," and 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 319 

repeated it antiphonally till the sounds softly died 
away. Again the deacon began : " To his wife, the 
orthodox and religious, crowned and exalted Lady, 
the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, for many years ; " 
and again the choir repeated the good wish. 

The coronation ceremony was now accomplished, 
and the bells clanged out and the cannon thundered, 
to announce the fact to the dense throng outside, 
who shouted out their joyful congratulations. The 
members of the Imperial family left their places and 
did homage. It was pathetic to see the wistful look 
in the face of the Dowager Empress as she tenderly 
embraced her son, and both were overcome by deep 
emotion. Then all others in the cathedral bowed low 
three times to the Emperor, who stood to receive this 
acknowledgment of their fealty. The bells and cannon 
ceased, and there was profound stillness as the 
Emperor knelt, and in clear earnest voice prayed 
for himself: "Lord God of our father, and King of 
Kings, Who hast created all things by Thy word, and 
by Thy wisdom hast made man, that he should walk 
uprightly and rule righteously over Thy world ; Thou 
hast chosen me as Tsar and judge over Thy people. 
I acknowledge Thy unsearchable purpose towards 
me, and bow in thankfulness before Thy Majesty. 
Do Thou, my Lord and Governor, fit me for the work 
to ^yhich Thou hast sent me : teach me and guide 
me in this great service. May there be with me the 
wisdom which belongs to Thy throne ; send it from 
Thy holy heaven, that I may know what is well- 
pleasing in Thy sight, and what is right according to 
Thy commandment. May my heart be in Thine 



320 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

hand, to accomplish all that is to the profit of the 
people committed to my charge, and to Thy glory, 
that so in the day of Thy judgment I may give 
Thee account of my stewardship without blame ; 
through the grace and mercy of Thy Son, Who was 
once crucified for us, to Whom be all honour and 
glory with Thee and the Holy Ghost, the Giver of 
Life, for ever and ever. Amen." Then the Emperor 
rose, and all others in the church, for the only time 
in the service, knelt while the Metropolitan, on his 
knees, took up and expanded these simple petitions. 
All rose, and the Metropolitan, standing before the 
Emperor, spoke a few earnest words of greeting, after 
which the choir sang the " Te Deum ". 

This was the end of the coronation service proper ; 
but it was followed at once by the Communion Service, 
which need not be described. During the Communion 
of the priests, inside the sanctuary, a carpet of gold 
cloth was unrolled and spread between the throne 
and the royal gates of the iconostass. The gates were 
opened and two Metropolitans appeared, accompanied 
by two deacons, and invited the Emperor and Em- 
press to come for their anointing and for the Holy 
Communion. The Emperor unbuckled his sword, for 
no weapon may approach the altar, and with the 
regalia carried before him, and his heavy train borne 
by eight officials, descended the steps and moved to 
the gate. The Metropolitan of St. Petersburg took 
in his hand the vessel containing the holy oil for the 
chrism. This oil is some of that which is carefully 
prepared every year for use at confirmation. With 
it the Metropolitan anointed the Emperor on his fore- 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 321 

head, his eyelids, his nostrils, his mouth, his breast 
and both sides of his hands, saying, " The seal of the 
gift of the Holy Ghost". The other Metropolitan 
wiped him with a silken cloth. Then the thunder of 
a hundred cannon announced to those without that 
this solemn rite was accomplished. 

Meanwhile the Emperor stood to one side, while 
the Empress advanced and was anointed on the 
forehead only. She stood aside as the Metropolitan 
led the Emperor inside the gates, for the only time 
in his life in which he may enter the place reserved 
for the priests. He who had just been crowned and 
anointed as head alike of Church and State was 
more than a layman, and, though not called to the 
priestly office, was admitted to priestly privileges. 
He entered the sanctuary and took the Holy Elements 
as a priest. When the Emperor returned, the Empress 
advanced to the gates, where the Metropolitan met 
her and administered the Communion according to 
ordinary custom. Then their Majesties returned to 
their thrones, and the Thanksgiving was said ; after 
which the deacon prayed for their health and hap- 
piness, and the choir again responded, " For many 
years ; for many years ". The Metropolitan brought 
the Cross for them to kiss, and the service was now 
over. The Emperor assumed his regalia, which he 
had laid aside during the Communion office. Again 
all present bowed three times in recognition that he 
was duly crowned and anointed. Bells and cannon 
again filled the air with sound as the procession left 
the church. The Emperor and Empress, each under 
their canopies, borne by high officials, with their 

21 



3^2 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

heavy trains carried by pages, proceeded slowly to 
visit the other cathedrals, where the deacon again 
wished them health and happiness as they bowed at 
the tombs of their ancestors. Then they mounted the 
steps leading to the palace, amidst the acclamations 
of the mighty crowd. On reaching the balcony the 
Emperor turned and faced his people. It was the 
formal recognition of their homage, and he bowed in 
acknowledgment. Then the long procession passed 
into the palace. 

It was by this time half-past one o'clock, and the 
strain of the long ceremony had been severe. But 
little rest was given to the Imperial party. At half- 
past two there was a State Banquet, according to 
custom, at which the Emperor dined in public. This 
survival of ancient times was extremely interesting, as 
it carried the spectator back to the old customs of 
monarchy throughout the world. The banqueting- 
hall in the palace, the Granovitaja Palata, is the 
most ancient part of the building, and was erected 
in 1 49 1. It is a vast room, with a low vaulted roof, 
which makes it seem smaller than it really is. The 
vault rests on a square central pillar, which is formed 
into a buffet, and was adorned with ancient plate, of 
which the Russian Emperor possesses a magnificent 
collection. Amongst the pieces are five which are of 
special interest to Englishmen, as they were the gift of 
Queen Elizabeth to Ivan the Terrible, when intercourse 
was first opened up between England and Russia. The 
walls and vault of the room are adorned with frescoes, 
painted in the style of ancient ecclesiastical art ; con- 
spicuous amongst the subjects is a series illustrating 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 323 

the life of Joseph. The floor is of inlaid wood in 
floriated patterns — a kind of work for which Russia is 
remarkable, as its woods are of almost every shade of 
colour and vie in richness with marble, while they ex- 
cel it in warmth of tone, and are more easily arranged in 
flowing designs. 

On one side of the hall was placed a dais, on which 
were three thrones, richly gilt and surmounted by a 
canopy. Opposite to this stood the members of the 
Imperial court. In another corner of the room was an 
orchestra and a choir, who performed during the ban- 
quet. Three tables were set for the chief ecclesiastics 
and the high nobility of the empire. Presently the 
National Anthem sounded forth, and the Emperor, 
with the two Empresses, wearing the regalia, and 
preceded by the marshals of the court, entered and 
took his place upon the throne, while all bowed low 
before him. As soon as he was seated, the dishes 
were brought in, and were handed from one officer to 
another till they reached the table, where they were 
placed by one who knelt. After a few minutes the 
Emperor called for wine, which was a signal that the 
court might withdraw. They did so, bowing as they 
went. The guests then took their seats, and their 
dinner was quickly served. At intervals toasts were 
given by the chamberlain, and were drunk in silence. 
Towards the end of the repast all the guests were pre- 
sented with gold medals commemorative of the corona- 
tion, bearing on one side the Emperor and Empress, 
on the other side the arms of the empire, beautifully 
executed in bold relief This banquet was, as has been 
said, confined to representatives of the Russian nation 



324 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

its highest officials in Church and State. The members 
of the Imperial family and other distinguished foreigners 
were served in a gallery whence they could look down 
upon the scene. It is a noticeable fact that amongst the 
ecclesiastics were reckoned the representatives of re- 
ligious bodies recognised by the State — two Roman 
Catholic prelates, two Lutheran superintendents, two 
Armenian bishops. And though it is not my intention 
to speak of myself, I am bound to acknowledge the sig- 
nal courtesy which was shown to the English Church by 
including me among the guests, though I had no claim 
of any kind, and was the only one who was not a 
Russian subject. The dinner was over by half-past 
four, and we all dispersed with the sense that we had 
been present at a demonstration of national sentiment 
unparalleled in its deep significance, and in the pro- 
found emotion which it expressed and created. Out- 
ward magnificence leaves the beholder interested, it 
may be, but unmoved ; here the splendour was but an 
attempt to set forth in a becoming way the sentiments 
of a people, who wished their ruler to feel how entirely 
their hopes were set upon him, and who commended 
themselves and him alike to God's guidance and 
direction. Outside the palace was still standing an 
eager throng, who gathered round the ecclesiastics, 
kissed their hands and begged their blessing. The 
whole atmosphere seemed charged with a simple, 
childlike earnestness, an intensity of faith and hppe. 
The accomplishment of the coronation was a signal 
for popular rejoicing, and never has a crowd been 
entertained by a more beautiful spectacle than the 
illumination of Moscow. The plan pursued was regu- 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 325 

lated by a harmonious design, which was carried out 
throughout the city, where the architectural features 
of the chief buildings were outlined by electric lamps 
of various colours. The chief interest centred in the 
Kremlin, where the long line of walls and towers, the 
outlines of domes and cupolas, all the strange and 
fantastic forms of its Oriental architecture with their 
wealth of detail, were painted in brilliant and har- 
monious colours upon the background of a perfect 
summer night. The delighted crowd of peasants 
from various quarters filled the streets and gazed 
with deepening delight upon a sight which surpassed 
all their imagination. For three nights the illumina- 
tions were repeated, and the intense enjoyment of the 
crowd, its perfect order, and the simple, kindly feeling 
which it displayed, were as interesting as the illumina- 
tions themselves. 

After the coronation the Emperor and Empress 
spent three days in receiving congratulations from the 
num.erous deputations sent from every quarter. In 
the evening of each day was provided some form of 
entertainment. First came a dinner, which afforded 
a remarkable token of the union between Church and 
State in Russia. At the Imperial table were seated 
the Emperor and Empress and royal guests. Opposite 
to them were the ecclesiastics, the Emperor facing the 
oldest Metropolitan, and so on in order of dignity. 
The varied uniforms and dainty toilettes on one side 
of the table formed a striking contrast with the 
episcopal robes of violet, surmounted by tall head- 
dresses of white and black, on the other. To strangers 
few incidents in the festivities looked more curious and 



326 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

picturesque. On the following evening was a recep- 
tion in the palace, to which 8,000 guests were invited, 
and the Imperial party walked through the crowded 
rooms, accompanied by the ambassadors, to the strains 
of a Polonaise, for three hours continuously, that all 
might have an opportunity of seeing them. On the 
third day an entertainment was given in the Opera 
House, where the appearance of the stage was eclipsed 
in splendour and variety of cdstume by the audience. 
So far all had gone admirably, and the arrange- 
ments had called forth universal praise. On Saturday, 
30th May, the Emperor gave according to custom a 
great festival for the people on the Chodinsky Field. 
As a prelude there was to be a distribution of presents 
to the number of 400,000. Early in the morning the 
expectant crowd rushed to the booths where the dis- 
tribution was to be made, and a few moments of wild 
confusion caused the death of nearly three thousand 
people. By some terrible irony of fate more destruc- 
tion was wrought by a good-natured crowd, bent upon 
a holiday, than could have been accomplished by two 
armies engaged in battle. It is easy to be wise after the 
event, and to lay down ideal precautions which ought 
to have been taken. It is obvious that anything must 
be avoided which directs a mass of people towards 
any given point. The plainest moral to be drawn is 
that old customs, which grew up before the days of 
rapid communication, are no longer possible when rail- 
ways create an incalculable crowd. In a vast treeless 
plain, absolutely unbroken, the direction and control 
of a huge multitude becomes a matter of extreme 
difficulty. But it is clear that they cannot be trusted 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 327 

to control themselves, and the ancient custom of 
publicly distributing doles must be discontinued. I 
can add nothing to the records of this grievous 
catastrophe ; but no one could have failed to be 
impressed by the way in which it was universally 
regarded. Every one deeply felt its sadness, but the 
popular sentiment would not endure that private 
sorrow should check the course of public rejoicing. 
We in England would have shrunk from any further 
demonstration of loyalty, and would have dispersed 
sadly to our homes in mourning. It was not so at 
Moscow. The crowd remained, scarcely abated in 
numbers, and awaited the coming of the Emperor at 
two o'clock. When he arrived he received an enthusi- 
astic greeting. The roar of the crowd drowned the 
strains of the National Anthem, sung by a vast choir 
again and again. Hats were waved and thrown 
heedlessl}' into the air, which grew thick with the dust 
caused by the movements of the multitude. There 
was no cessation in the shouts till the Emperor with- 
drew to the Petrovsky Palace close by, where he 
entertained at dinner the bailiffs of the communes, 
and addressed them in words of heartfelt welcome. 
The Imperial entertainments were now at an end, 
and it was the turn for others to entertain the Emperor. 
I need not speak of the balls given by the French 
Ambassador, the Governor of Moscow, the nobility of 
Moscow, of the dinner at the English Embassy, and the 
concert at the German Embassy. These were eclipsed 
by a ball at the Kremlin Palace. But one ceremony 
remained to be performed as a necessary sequence to 
the coronation — a visit by the Emperor and Empress 



328 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

to the Monastery of the Troitsa, situated about sixty 
miles from Moscow. This is the most holy place in 
Russia, and St. Sergius, its founder, is the most popu- 
lar, because the most truly national, saint. In the 
dismal times of the Tartar domination he withdrew 
for prayer and devotion to a secluded spot, where a 
brotherhood soon gathered round him. The princes of 
Moscow, who were placing themselves at the head of a 
national resistance, frequently sought his advice, and he 
blessed Demetrius of the Don, and sent two of his 
monks to pray for him at the celebrated battle of 
Kulikova. The monastery which he founded became 
the centre of national independence against the 
Tartars, and afterwards against the Poles ; it was the 
refuge and support of the rulers of Moscow, and had 
such narrow escapes from destruction that it was 
regarded as under the special protection of Heaven. 
A visit to the tomb of St. Sergius is one of the objects 
of every pious Russian, and no great event in the life 
of the Imperial family is complete without a visit to 
the place which is fullest of lofty memories of national 
history. Thither the Emperor went, accompanied 
by a few ecclesiastics and officers of State ; he went 
privately as an ordinary pilgrim, to confirm and 
renew in that quiet spot the vows which he had made 
at his coronation. If in the Kremlin he was sur- 
rounded by the memorials of his ancestors on the 
Imperial throne, at the Troitsa he was led back to the 
lives of simple men, instinct with faith, who supplied 
the motive power and maintained the principles to 
which their ancestors had given shape, and round 
which the Russian nation had been formed. 



THE IMPERIAL CORONATION AT MOSCOW 329 

I have written as one who tried to lend himself to 
the meaning of a great national ceremony, unique of 
its kind. I have written as one who tried to understand 
rather than to criticise. Such a ceremony cannot be 
measured by our standards ; it was an expression of 
national sentiment, penetrated by a poetry and a 
passion unknown to us, or rather I should not say 
unknown in the sense of unfelt, but such as we should 
not care to express in any visible form. It was an 
exhibition of national self-consciousness upon a mighty 
scale, and as such produced a deep impression on all 
beholders. It focussed many national characteristics, 
and showed a serious sense of a great national mission, 
with which every Englishman could feel, himself in 
fundamental sympathy. 



330 



THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY; THE 
CATHOLIC REACTION. By John Ad- 
dington Symonds. Two volumes} 

Mr. Symonds is to be congratulated on having 
brought to a successful termination his important work 
on the Italian Renaissance. Its merits as a happy 
mixture of erudition and brilliant writing have been 
already sufficiently recognised ; more so than the diffi- 
culties which beset a writer who aims at giving a 
picture of the culture of an age in its many-sided 
development. When we survey Mr. Symonds' book 
as a whole, we see how skilfully he has overcome these 
difficulties by keeping a firm grasp upon the literary 
side of his subject, and illustrating it from contem- 
porary life and various forms of artistic expression. 
Mr. Symonds is primarily a literary historian, and the 
literary criticism contained in his fourth and fifth 
volumes has a value of its own independent of the 
contents of the rest. He enters upon a field which is 
peculiarly his own, and these volumes constitute the 
kernel of his book. 

The difficulties which beset Mr. Symonds' path 
culminate in the last two volumes on The Catholic 
Reaction, If it is difficult to write literary history in 
its relation to contemporary life, the difficulties increase 

1 From the English Historical Review, 



THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 331 

when a phase of literature comes to an end, and Mr. 
Symonds' concluding volumes contain more disputable 
matter than all his previous ones together, and we 
doubt if it was necessary for his subject that he should 
enter so largely on political considerations. It was 
enough to show that the movement of the Renaissance 
died away in Italy, without trying to prove that it was 
stifled. We may deplore the Catholic reaction without 
holding it responsible for the decay of Italian litera- 
ture, or rather we may feel doubtful if the right of the 
Catholic Church to restore a shattered society on its 
ancient lines was not as good as the claim of the Re- 
naissance to be allowed to lead society into still further 
disintegration. The Catholic reaction was the result 
of a recognition of past failure, and its fault was that it 
used repressive measures to bring back a past which 
was impossible and which was not even rightly under- 
stood. About the failure there was no doubt, and the 
Papacy might justly attribute much of this failure to 
the wanton spirit of the Italian Renaissance, which 
had been only too successful in asserting its principles 
and carrying them into the domain of politics. The 
Papacy had encouraged it, petted it, and accepted it 
as an ally to its own cost. If the Popes had not been 
so thoroughly impregnated with the Italian spirit, if 
Leo X. had been more of a theologian, and if his 
cardinals had been more eminent for learning than for 
dexterity, the lines of German thought would not have 
diverged so widely and the questions raised by Luther 
might have met with more reasonable treatment. 
Similarly in politics the Renaissance had destroyed 
the spirit of Italian patriotism, had enervated the 



332 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

Italian mind, and almost destroyed Italian morals ; 
and in all these exploits could count upon the forbear- 
ance and often upon the co-operation of the Papacy, 
which seemed semi-paganised by its allurements. It is 
only fair to observe that if the Renaissance suffered at 
the hands of the Papacy in the middle of the sixteenth 
century, the Papacy had suffered in the beginning of 
the century from its too ready acquiescence in the 
seductive teaching wherewith the Renaissance beguiled 
Italy to its ruin. Of course this view rests upon the 
assumption that the Renaissance is to be regarded as 
a body of doctrine, a system of life and conduct, not 
merely a series of literary and artistic products. Now 
two of Mr. Symonds' previous volumes have dealt with 
the Renaissance in the larger sense, and three have 
dealt with it in the smaller sense ; and he seems in 
these last volumes to be willing to regard it in the 
smaller sense just where the larger sense becomes 
especially necessary. For the Catholic reaction did 
not try to put down literature or art as such, but only 
teaching which it considered erroneous and art which 
it held to be meretricious ; it fought against a view of 
life which it had tolerated till actual facts showed its 
dangers. Mr. Symonds denounces the immorality of 
life under the Catholic reaction, and collects an abun- 
dant supply of celebrated cases of vile offences. But 
are these examples of the state of society which the 
Catholic reaction produced, or of the state of society 
which the Catholic reaction was trying to improve? 
The stories of Vittoria Accoramboni and the rest are 
told in greater detail than the misdeeds of Gismondo 
Malatesta and others a century before ; but the greater 



THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY 333 

attention which they attracted is a sign that men's 
consciences were somewhat more awake. The de- 
pravity of morals, the heedlessness of human life, 
the boundless self-assertion of men who regarded 
themselves as privileged, these were all legacies of the 
Renaissance. The crimes of the Carafifa are notorious 
because they were admitted and were punished ; the 
crimes of Cesare Borgia are obscure because no one 
thought very seriously about them. Of course the 
methods adopted by the Catholic reaction were 
neither wise nor right, and were not likely to be really 
successful ; but that is no reason why they should bear 
more blame than they deserve, or why the Renaissance 
should have a spurious halo of martyrdom thrown 
over its last days. 

Indeed it is impossible not to feel that Mr. Symonds' 
point of view is somewhat wavering, that he is not 
quite clear after all whether the Renaissance was 
stifled or died a natural death. Then he says (i., 70) : 
" Humanism was sinking into pedantry and aca- 
demic erudition. Painting and sculpture tended 
towards a kind of empty mannerism. The main 
motives supplied to art by mediaeval traditions and 
humanistic enthusiasm were worked out. It was not 
possible to advance farther on the old lines." Yet he 
speaks later (i., 325) of the Catholic reaction as " check- 
ing the tide of national energy in full flow," and this 
is his prevailing view, for which we fail to find any 
real justification. The Italians of the later part of 
the sixteenth century inherited the temper of the 
Renaissance, but their intellectual attitude bore the 
marks of the Catholic revival. What Mr. Symonds 



334 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

says of Tasso is true in a way of all the Italians of 
that period : " As an artist he belonged to the old 
order which was passing, as a Christian to the new 
order which was emerging ". It may seem a paradox 
to say that if the Renaissance had been left to go its 
own way in Italy, it would have produced nothing 
more ; whereas the impulse given by revived Catholi- 
cism produced Tasso, Bruno and Sarpi, in an age 
which had not yet lost its sympathy with Ariosto, 
Ficino and Machiavelli. 

Thus we think that Mr. Symonds has wished to 
round off his book too completely, and give a dramatic 
termination to what was really a process of decay. It 
may be argued that the Catholic reaction prolonged 
rather than precipitated this decay ; but Mr. Symonds 
has not taken that possibility into consideration. One 
interesting aspect of the Italian mind he has omitted 
— its difficulty in surviving outside Italy, its power- 
lessness to adapt itself to other than Italian modes of 
thought. The Italian exiles and refugees could find 
no abiding place in Northern Europe. Even the 
greatest of them, Giordano Bruno, struck men as a 
charlatan, and so late as the days of Marco Antonio 
de Dominis it was found impossible to co-ordinate an 
Italian refugee with any known system. The marks 
of the Renaissance went deep into the national mind, 
and its influence was more abiding than even Mr. 
Symonds allows. 



335 



IL PRINCIPE. By Niccolo Machiavelli. Edited by 
L.A. Burd, With an Introduction by Lord Acton} 

LIFE AND TIMES OF NICCOLO MACHIA- 
VELLI. By Professor Pasquale Villari} 

Mr. Burd's object is that of an expositor. He brings 
before his readers Italy as it was when Machiavelli 
wrote ; he shows them the circumstances and con- 
ditions amidst which the Principe came into exist- 
ence ; he points out that much subsequent criticism 
went astray, because it regarded the book as an abstract 
treatise, enforcing lessons of universal application. 
The welthistorische importance of the book is due 
largely to its having been misunderstood. The appli- 
cation of a strictly historical method enables Mr. Burd 
to sweep away these misunderstandings and restore 
the book to its original meaning. Machiavelli idealises 
the type of character which was most effective in con- 
temporary politics ; and he lived in an age when politics 
were embodied in individuals, not in institutions. 

The problem was, to find a competent man, equip 
him properly for his task, and direct his energies to the 
right end. The choice lay between a shifty politician 
and a man of force. The former was sure to seek only 
his own interests ; the latter might conceivably have 
a noble aim. Neither could be trusted to pursue the 

^From the English Historical Review. 



336 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

public good as an end in itself; but individual desire 
for fame, and joy in the exercise of capacity, might be 
led to identify themselves with something useful, while 
cautious statecraft could end in nothing that was pro- 
fitable to the common good. Something might come 
of the unabashed villainy of Cesare Borgia : nothing 
could come of the cautious shuffling of Leo X. 

Thirty years after Machiavelli wrote, the political 
hopes of a Roman burgher still rested on the appear- 
ance of an individual leader who had a right conception 
of the basis on which fame securely rests. " If in the 
hearts of men there should thus arise the desire to 
make their names eternal as their souls are eternal 
and immortal, I believe certainly that they would be 
much better than those who are inspired by the desire 
to have and to rule ; it seems to me that these are not 
only worse at first, but become worse every day. Since 
for those who desire to make themselves remembered 
in the centuries to come, there is no other road which 
leads more easily to that goal, than the road on which 
men can only walk with the strength and on the founda- 
tion of virtue. Those who without any consideration 
have gone on other ways than this, not only suffer in 
the course of their life endless blame and marks of dis- 
honour, but their names will also remain obscure ; and 
should any one speak of them it will be with but little 
praise." ^ 

Machiavelli, starting from things as he saw them 

^ Se ne' cori degli huomini si generasse cosi il desiderio di farsi eterni 
i nomi come hanno gli animi eterni e immortali, credo certo che essi 
sarebbero assai migliori quali tratti dalla cupidita dell' havere e del 
regnare : mi pare che non solo siano gia stati ma siano anche ogni di 



IL PRINCIPE— LIFE AND TIMES 337 

and from the motives which he found to actuate the 
men of his own day, invented the " Saviour of Society". 
Given the existing condition of Italian politics, and the 
character which had been developed in the Italy of the 
Renaissance, how could the best result be obtained ? 
He took the most capable man whom he was likely 
to find, put before him the highest end which he was 
likely to understand, and then went on to consider 
how he had best proceed. He said that to such a man, 
undertaking such a task, moral considerations were 
of subsidiary importance, and success was the one 
criterion by which he ,was to be judged. The con- 
ception was one forced upon him by the actual facts 
of Italian history in his own time. The methods which 
he codified were those which he saw being actually 
employed. The aim which he recommended was 
one of supreme importance. He did not compile a 
handbook for the acquisition of power to be used 
selfishly ; it was to be used for the preservation and 
regeneration of Italy. The means were not of his 
own choosing ; he only took those which he saw 
ready at hand. He did not prescribe a universal 
method, but only one which was applicable to the 
immediate problem which men must solve, or perish. 
Where is the flaw in his argument ? What are we to 
say of him as a statesman, a moralist and a patriot ? 

peggiori. Imperoche a volersi far memorabili ne' secoli futuri non 
ci e altra via che piu facilmente gli conduca a quel fine che quella per 
la quale si camina con le forze e con i moli della virtu. . . . Quelli 
che senza riguardo alcuno hanno proceduto per altra via che questa, 
oltre che hanno nei progressi delle vite loro infiniti biasimi e dishonorate 
note, hanno anche il nome in oscuro, e se pur se ne ragiona se gli 
attribuiscono poche lodi. 

22 



338 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

It is not Mr. Burd's business as an expositor to 
answer these questions. He contents himself with 
pointing out that Machiavelli, having stated a scientific 
problem, worked it out consistently and logically. He 
did not deny the existence of moral sentiments in man 
any more than did Adam Smith ; " he merely declined 
to allow moral considerations to interfere, as he believed 
they did, with the logical discussion of the subject in 
hand ". He set a problem and adopted one means 
for its solution. The process was at least scientific 
and intelligible. It is easy to object to the details ; 
but the interest of the book lies in its suggestiveness. 
Professor Villari points out that Machiavelli recognised 
the difference between private and public morality, 
and attempted to formulate scientifically the results 
of this difference. He did not stop to consider how 
they were connected, and no one has yet clearly 
established the extent of that connexion. " While we 
admit that public morality differs from private, we are 
sufficiently ingenuous, not to say hypocritical, to main- 
tain that the essential characteristic of modern politics 
consists in conducting public business with the same 
good faith and delicacy which we are bound to observe 
in private affairs. This, as every one knows, is always 
the theory, not always the practice." Thus Professor 
Villari defends Machiavelli by attacking his accusers 
and daring them to cast the first stone — a challenge 
which certainly ought to appeal to the conscience. 
Let us conceive a disciple of Machiavelli at the present 
day, endowed with Machiavelli's mental power, and 
possessing all Machiavelli's frankness. Suppose that 
he considered some great and worthy object to be 



IL PRINCIPE— LIFE AND TIMES 339 

within the attainment of a statesman who could lead 
a democratic community to pursue an ideal end. 
Suppose that he proceeded to inquire what were the 
means by which a capable man could secure a seat in 
Parliament, could make himself necessary to his party, 
could win the confidence of the house, could become 
Prime Minister, could dominate the country, and lead 
it away from selfish interests to a great national policy. 
Would such a book, illustrated by actual experience, 
remorselessly founded on accomplished facts, be alto- 
gether pleasant reading? What place would morality 
occupy in it ? Would it direct the means, or would it 
be attached solely to the end ? This is the question 
which Professor Villari's defence submits to the judg- 
ment of experts. 

But Mr. Burd's book contains an introduction written 
by Lord Acton which carries the matter much farther. 
Lord Acton's remarks deserve to be carefully read and 
weighed by every student and every writer of history, for 
they indicate conclusions which every one must be pre- 
pared to face. " Machiavelli," he says, " is the earliest 
conscious and articulate exponent of certain living forces 
in the present world. Religion, progressive enlighten- 
ment, the perpetual vigilance of public opinion, have 
not reduced his empire, or disproved the justice of his 
conception of human nature." In proof of this judg- 
ment. Lord Acton has surveyed political thought and 
practice from Machiavelli's time to the present day 
and has produced a formidable indictment, in which 
the offenders are convicted from their own mouths. 
Divines, statesmen, philosophers and historians of 
every country, of every age and of every school of 



340 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

thought, are shown to have allowed exceptions to the 
paramount authority of the moral law. They have 
all, in some shape or other, admitted Machiavelli's 
fundamental proposition, that " extraordinary objects 
cannot be accomplished under ordinary rules ". Princi- 
ples which have been condemned when used by the 
defenders of old institutions, have been approved 
when used in behalf of national movements towards 
something new. The justification of success because 
it succeeds, the optimism which discovers a beneficent 
evolution in human affairs, the assertion of the para- 
mount right of the State as against the individual — 
these and many other such-like theories carry obscurely 
their tribute to the condemned Machiavelli. Further, 
Machiavelli was the author of utilitarian morals, and 
on utilitarian principles it is hard to pick a flaw in his 
reasoning. 

If Mr. Burd has illustrated Machiavelli's meaning, in 
a way which leaves nothing to be desired, Lord Acton 
has pointed out the magnitude of the problems which 
Machiavelli has raised. His pages are a warning to the 
thoughtless and the inexperienced concerning the 
far-reaching results of historical judgments. They 
raise questions which every historian is bound to face. 
They exhort him, not obscurely, to consider well his 
aim and object, and determine his relations to the 
moral law, which he professes to regard as supreme in 
his own nature, but shrinks from asserting as equally 
applicable to great characters in history, or to great 
social movements. They point to principles which 
are of the first importance in determining the future 
of historical science. 



341 



CATERIN A SFORZA. Di Pier Desiderio Pasolini} 

It is a rare pleasure to read a work at once so thorough 
and so spirited as is this Hfe of Caterina Sforza, to 
which Count Pasolini has obviously devoted so many 
years of patient labour. Research and enthusiasm do 
not often go together, but Count Pasolini is inspired 
by local patriotism towards the Romagna, and is sup- 
ported by a feeling of hereditary loyalty. He has 
ransacked all the archives, and has compiled a Calendar 
of the documents relating to his subject. His book is 
full of illustrations of all the people and places con- 
nected with his heroine. 

It must be confessed that few personages are more 
interesting, both in themselves and in their surround- 
ings, than Caterina Sforza. The rise of the Sforza 
family is one of the most picturesque episodes in Italian 
history. The government of Milan by Caterina's father^ 
his tragic death, the fortunes of his widow, the downfall 
of his son and the French invasion of which it was the 
ostensible cause, form the turning-point in the fortunes 
of Italy. Caterina's own life was connected with 
everything that was most characteristic in contem- 
porary politics. She married the nephew of Pope 
Sixtus IV. and held a high place in Roman society, 
which she entered as a bride of fourteen. On the 

^ From the English Historical Review. 



342 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

death of Sixtus, when she was only twenty-one, she 
had to maintain the State of Forli for her incapable 
husband, who was murdered four years later. It was 
then that his widow displayed an amount of courage 
and statesmanship which earned her a lasting reputa- 
tion, and made " Madonna di Forli " one of the most 
conspicuous figures in Italian politics. She continued 
to preserve her power during the French invasion, but 
fell a victim to Cesare Borgia, after offering the only 
resistance which that adventurer ever experienced. 
She was carried off as a prisoner to Rome, where she 
was shut up for eighteen months in the Castle of S. 
Angelo, and was only liberated when she was helpless 
for the future. She never recovered her power, but 
ended her days in Florence in 1509, at the age of 
forty-six. 

Caterina Sforza was a remarkable woman, and Count 
Pasolini does full justice to her merits. He writes as 
a biographer, and does not stray needlessly into general 
topics. He has no particular lesson to teach, and no 
moral to draw. He deplores the corruption of the 
times, and is severe sometimes on Caterina's enemies, 
but for herself he has extenuating circumstances to 
plead. Yet it is impossible not to see that she reaped 
what she had sown, and that the substitution of Cesare 
Borgia for a number of small rulers of the same type 
involved no change of political method, and no de- 
terioration of political morality. Thus, during an 
illness of her first husband, she concocted a scheme for 
the murder of the captain of the fortress of Ravaldino, 
of whose loyalty she was not sure. He was treacher- 
ously assassinated, and the assassin pretended to act 



CATERINA SFORZA 343 

on his own account, and then gave up the fortress to 
Caterina, who rode out and took command, though she 
was gravida e grossa a la gola. The assassination of her 
husband, Girolamo Riario, was instigated by Lorenzo 
dei Medici, with the assent of Pope Innocent VIII, ; 
but Caterina by her intrepidity prevented them from 
reaping the fruits of their treachery. She obtained 
help from Milan, and had the skill to overawe her 
people, and also to prevent the sack of the town, which 
seemed the natural revenge for her husband's death. 
She actually became the object of popular gratitude, 
because she preferred to rule over a city which was 
not reduced to a heap of ruins. But however resolute 
Caterina might show herself in time of danger, she 
could not rise above her passions, and soon raised her 
lover, Giacomo Feo, to a dangerous power. Caterina 
could not marry without losing her position as guardian 
of her son ; but Count Pasolini is convinced that she 
secretly married Feo, though no evidence is produced. 
At all events Feo behaved as undoubted master, and 
a Florentine envoy was informed that "she would 
rather bury herself, her children and all her goods, 
would rather give her soul to the devil and her state 
to the Turk than abandon Feo". The Florentine 
looked on and took a business-like view of the situation. 
He gave his opinion that Feo was hated at Milan and 
at Rome ; so long as Caterina clung to him she would 
be obliged to ally herself with Florence. But this 
state of things could not last long without a catastrophe. 
One of three things must happen : either Caterina 
would tire of Feo and have him assassinated ; or Feo 
would have Caterina and all her children assassinated ; 



344 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

or her eldest son, Ottaviano Riario, would have his 
mother and her lover assassinated. Politics proverbi- 
ally admit of three courses ; but as a rule none of 
them is pursued with the definiteness with which they 
are stated. 

Even Italian affairs in the sixteenth century admitted 
of compromises, and such a compromise was actually 
made. Feo went so far as to box Ottaviano's ears in 
public, and Caterina was afraid to interfere. An un- 
authorised conspiracy was made against Feo, and he 
was assassinated by private enemies, without affecting 
Caterina's political position. But Caterina's vengeance 
for the death of her lover knew no bounds. Even the 
wives and children of those suspected of being privy 
to the plot were put to death with horrible cruelties. 
Count Pasolini can only say that, " sublime after the 
assassination of her first husband, after the murder of 
her lover the figure of Caterina presents itself as vile 
and ferocious ". Even Pope Alexander VI. expressed 
himself as shocked at such atrocities. 

However, the political results of Caterina's good 
understanding with Florence remained, and she was 
not long in taking as her third husband Giovanni dei 
Medici, to whom she bore a famous son, Giovanni delle 
Bande Nere. But her eldest son, Ottaviano, was grow- 
ing up and the period of Caterina's regency was coming 
to an end. She determined to keep her power as long 
as possible, and refused offers of marriage for Ottaviano. 
One came from the Pope, who proposed the hand of 
Lucrezia Borgia. Count Pasolini gives Caterina due 
credit for this refusal : " Fede politica immtctabilel' he 
says, " 7na in casa, a quahmque costo^ plena liberta 



CATERINA SFORZA 345 

morale ". It is difficult to rate Caterina's moral objec- 
tions very high. She says herself, " Comprendo che il 
primo disegno loro sia stato di levarme da qui'' ; and 
this reason was more powerful than the desire to save 
her son from the disgrace of marrying a divorced 
woman. But the toils of the Borgia gathered round 
her ; Forli was taken by Cesare in January, 1 500, and 
Caterina at the age of thirty-seven had finished her 
career. 

It is curious how all definite information is lacking 
about the actual deeds of Alexander VI. and his 
son. Contemporary rumour attributed to Cesare the 
vilest treatment of his prisoner ; but of this there is 
no certain knowledge, and Caterina's letters give no 
details of what happened to her during her imprison- 
ment at Rome. It would be extremely interesting to 
have even a fragment of a conversation between her 
and Alexander VI., but Count Pasolini has failed to 
discover any such record. We only know that Caterina 
left S. Angelo with her spirit considerably tamed, 
arid that a priest of her party speaks of her escape 
from quelli diavoli mcarnati. The end of Caterina's 
days was like that of other dispossessed sovereigns, 
and was spent in vain attempts to procure her own 
return and to stir up her sons to activity for that 
purpose. 

Caterina's fame rests, after all, upon her display of 
personal courage. Sanuto's description sums up all 
that is characteristic : " Femina quasi virago crudelis- 
sima e digran animo". Had she been a man she would 
not in that age have been specially remarkable. The 
wonder was that she should combine feminine charm 



346 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

with manly vigour ; but she certainly possessed little 
feminine tenderness. A letter written by her to Ludo- 
vico il Moro in 1496 is certainly characteristic of the 
moral condition of the times. Ludovico had remon- 
strated with her, at the request of Giovanni Bentivoglio, 
for attempting the assassination of one of her personal 
enemies who was residing at Bologna. She answers : 
" To speak freely I do not deny the truth, which is 
that having learned from some servants that the said 
Giovanni Battista Brocchi was in Bologna, and in the 
house of Messer Giovanni, for no good purpose towards 
me, many of our servants came and offered, either to 
take him alive and put him in my hands as prisoner, 
or to kill him. I, who had been grievously offended 
by him, and who wished to have him in my hands for 
the greater confusion of those who had machinated 
against me, did not refuse either offer. I confess this 
was no good deed, as you say. But Messer Giovanni 
need not express such surprise at it, but might re- 
member that I am made of the same stuff as himself ; 
for he has caused to be pursued, even into holy places, 
many who have not offended him so much as Giovanni 
Battista has offended me. Every one feels resentment 
about his own grievances, and if he has given such 
tokens of resentment in his affairs, it ought not to 
seem to him such a novelty that I am disposed to let 
him know that I am not dead yet." There is more 
than masculine directness in this statement. On the 
other hand Caterina shows that she was a good house- 
keeper, by a receipt book of considerable size which 
she kept. This is a valuable source of information 
about the private life of Italian ladies of the sixteenth 



CATERINA SFORZA 347 

century, and deserves study from this point of view. 
There are innumerable prescriptions for acqua mirabile 
a farsi bella, as well as for ointments and medicines 
against many ills of the flesh. The investigation of 
domestic medicine in the past is a comparatively new 
subject. An analysis of Caterina's collection for the 
purpose would be of great interest. 



348 



LETTERS AND PAPERS, FOREIGN AND 
DOMESTIC, OF THE REIGN OF HENRY 
VIII. A rranged and catalogued by James Gaird- 
ner. Vol. v. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1887.^ 

The tenth volume of the Calendar of State Papers for 
the reign of Henry VIII. covers only the first half o^ 
the year 1536: and it may fairly be doubted if there 
were ever six months in English history which raised 
questions of greater interest, or which required more 
careful and accurate study. The death of Catharine 
of Aragon, the trial and sentence of Anne Boleyn, and 
the reports of the visitation of the monasteries are all 
subjects of much debate ; while the cumulative im- 
portance of the growing mass of evidence for the 
character and policy of Henry VI 11. steadily tends to 
elucidate the great change which transformed England 
in the sixteenth century. 

Mr. Gairdner in his excellent preface calls attention 
to the chief questions which are illustrated by the docu- 
ments which he publishes. Foremost among them is 
Mr. Friedmann's contention in his Anne Boleyn that 
Catharine died of poison. Yet, when the evidence is 
all put together, it will hardly carry this conclusion. 
Catharine's illness lasted nearly six weeks : she suffered 
from sickness, pain in the stomach and sleeplessness. 

^From the English Historical Review. 



LETTERS AND PAPERS, HENRY VIII. 349 

Before her death the Imperial envoy, Chapuys, was 
permitted to visit her and stayed with her four days : 
an old servant, Lady Willoughby, who made her way 
to Kimbolton, managed by an artifice to gain admit- 
tance to her former mistress. Chapuys left Catharine 
ten days before her death in the belief that she was 
better. He asked her physician if he had any suspi- 
cions of poison ; he said, " Yes, for after she had drunk 
some Welsh beer she had been worse" ; but he admitted 
he could discover no evidence of a very simple and 
pure poison ; it must have been a slow and subtle one. 
Thus the suspicion of poison was suggested by 
Chapuys, and was assented to by the Queen's physician 
without any sufficient evidence. On the other hand 
the haste and secrecy in embalming Catharine's corpse 
certainly tended to give weight to a hitherto baseless 
supposition. Within eight hours the body was opened, 
in the presence only of the candlemaker of the house 
and a servant, by a man who was not a surgeon, yet 
had often performed a similar task before. To him 
the appearance of the heart seemed suspicious because 
it was black, did not change colour in washing, and 
had a black growth on the side. The Queen's physician 
was convinced by this evidence that she had been 
poisoned ; Chapuys took his word for it, and Mr. 
Friedmann in turn takes Chapuys' word. But he does 
not explain what poison blackens the heart and causes 
a growth round it — a step which is necessary if he is 
drawing his conclusions from the medical evidence. 
He takes refuge instead in the general remark that 
poisoners in the sixteenth century administered small 
doses so as to sap the strength of their victims and 



350 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

leave no trace behind. If this were so, the presump- 
tion that Catharine was poisoned does not depend on 
anything save its inherent probabiHty ; and the in- 
cident of the candlemaker is not worth recording. 

Mr. Gairdner, however, calls attention to the difficulty 
which Chapuys himself found in establishing his sup- 
position. On 2 1st January he wrote that the poisoning 
was evident from the story about the heart, and from the 
whole'course of the Queen's illness. On 29th January 
he wrote : " Many suspect, that if the Queen died by 
poison, it was Gregory de Casale who sent it by a 
kinsman, of Modena, named Gorron. Those who 
suspect this say the said Gregory must have earned 
somehow the eight ducats a day the King gave him." 
Chapuys himself dismisses the story, " as there would 
be too great danger of its being made known ". It 
would seem from this letter that Chapuys found some 
difficulty in working out his poisoning theory. Eng- 
land was not famed for skilful poisoners ; some Italian 
agent was necessary, and he was hard to find. Mr. 
Gairdner pertinently remarks that if the suspicion of 
poisoning had obtained any real belief, it is strange 
that it should have become generally discredited and 
almost forgotten until the search into the Viennese 
archives brought it to light in our own day. Without 
wishing to extol Henry VIII. unduly, we may acquit 
him of poisoning Catharine. 

Mr. Friedmann's view of Henry VIII., generally, is 
that he was a vain and a weak man, who was always 
under some one's influence. The papers in this volume 
of the calendar supply a sufficient example that this 
was not the case. Henry VII I., after the fall of Wolsey 



LETTERS AND PAPERS, HENRY VIII. 351 

had shown him the extent of his power, used his 
ministers as puppets, allowed them to do all his dirty 
work, deceived or trusted them just as far as suited 
his purposes. After Catharine's death Charles V. had 
no longer any personal motives for hostility to Henry 
VIII. He was on the verge of a war with Francis I. 
and took a practical view of the advantages he might 
gain by detaching Henry from the side of Francis. 
Henry himself calculated on this, and commissioned 
Cromwell to open up friendly proposals to Chapuys, 
who came to talk with the King about an Imperial 
alliance. Then Henry, to Cromwell's amazement, 
gave a haughty answer, and complained of his griev- 
ances ; he demanded that the Emperor should write 
to him beseeching forgiveness of his past ingratitude. 
Cromwell was hardly able to speak to Chapuys after- 
wards, and said that he had never been more mortified 
in his life. Henry was wiser than Cromwell and was 
pursuing a course of policy which he had learnt from 
Wolsey. He told Francis I. of the Emperor's overtures ; 
he told his envoy at the Imperial court that the Em- 
peror's ingratitude made it necessary that overtures 
should proceed from his side. He was doing his utmost 
to set Francis and Charles against each other, and 
was enhancing his own value in the eyes of both, so 
as to make the best terms with the one who would 
offer him most. The policy was entirely his own 
and Cromwell had been used as a decoy, for he was 
genuinely in favour of an Imperial alliance. 

The abominable heartlessness of Henry VIII. and 
Cromwell has not been painted by Mr. Friedmann in 
darker colours than it deserves. There was no refine- 



352 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

ment of cruelty which they did not use to compel the 
Princess Mary to admit the illegality of her mother's 
marriage ; and Chapuys at last advised her that 
submission was the only means of saving her life. 
Further, the death of Catharine sealed the fate of 
Anne Boleyn, of whom Henry was already weary. 
Three weeks after Catharine's death Chapuys heard 
that Anne was often in tears, " fearing that they might 
do with her as with the good Queen ". Henry said 
that he had married Anne, seduced by witchcraft, and 
for this reason considered his marriage null ; '* and 
this was evident because God did not permit them to 
have male issue ". Anne was treated with growing 
coldness, and Cromwell smiled ambiguously when he 
spoke of her to Chapuys. The letters of Chapuys 
show us clearly that Anne's fall was agreed upon long 
before her arrest. It is difficult after reading them to 
believe in the specific charges which were suddenly 
brought against her. There had been enough trouble 
about a divorce before : Henry and Cromwell took a 
shorter method in her case. Anne herself seems 
almost to have welcomed death as a release from a 
position which was hopeless. She knew that Henry 
had turned to Jane Seymour, whose relatives were 
schooling her to ruin Anne, even as Anne had been 
taught to overthrow Catharine, It was only a ques- 
tion of a few months at the best, and she felt an 
hysterical joy when the crisis came. Even Chapuys 
gives his opinion that, although every one rejoiced at 
Anne's death, "there are some who murmur at the 
mode of procedure ; and it will not pacify the world 
when it is known what has passed and is oassing 



LETTERS AND PAPERS, HENRY VIII. 353 

between him and Mrs. Jane Semel " (Seymour). Any 
one who believes in a lofty standard of morals at the 
English court may receive some enlightenment from 
the reason which Cromwell gave to Chapuys why 
Henry VIII. could not marry the daughter of the 
French King — " that if a foreign queen of great con- 
nexion misconducted herself as to her person she 
could not be punished and got rid of like the last ". 

The despatches of Chapuys are full of interesting 
information, especially about Cromwell, whose char- 
acter and methods of procedure become clearer as 
this volume proceeds, though we must still wait a few 
years longer before we are able to estimate him aright. 
There is much other matter of importance in these 
volumes which is excellently illustrated by Mr. 
Gairdner's preface. Mr. Gairdner is to be congratu- 
lated upon the increasing capacity which he shows of 
giving a careful summary, in which every judgment is 
weighty. 

We turn to another point on which this volume 
gives valuable information, the beginning of the 
dissolution of the monasteries. On this subject there 
are two points which it is necessary to keep quite 
distinct: (i) the general policy of suppressing mon- 
asticism and the public opinion about it ; (2) the 
particular measures taken by Cromwell and the 
public opinion about them. Our ultimate judgment 
on the first of these points must depend on general 
considerations. Had the monasteries finished their 
v/ork in England ? Were they still maintaining a 
high standard of spiritual life? Were they homes 
of learning? Were they civilising agencies ? Or was 

23 



354 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

their work doubtful ? Were they hindrances to the 
economic change which was passing over England and 
could not be withstood ? Were they far too numer- 
ous ? Had they lost popular respect ? We think 
that it is impossible for any one to read the history of 
the previous century, and not feel that some change 
was inevitable. The only questions were what the 
change should be and how it should be wrought. 
The critic of Henry VIII. and Cromwell ought to 
have before himself some conception of an alternative 
policy to that which they pursued. 

Any fair-minded student of history must grant that 
the monasteries did not deserve the treatment which 
they received, but would not maintain that they were 
very well as they were. This last opinion was that of the 
great majority of Englishmen in the year 1530, and it 
was the existence of this opinion which made Crom- 
well's proceedings possible. The monasteries were 
neither better nor worse than they had been at any 
time in the two previous centuries ; the reason for their 
dissolution was independent of anything that could 
be brought to light about them. No one, for two 
centuries, had looked upon the monks as saints ; no 
one at the time of the dissolution looked upon them 
as monsters of vice. They were on the whole excellent 
members of society, kindly landlords, resident on their 
estates, employing labour, leading very respectable 
lives. But they were exposed to all the odium which 
always attaches to social superiors, capitalists and 
landlords alike. The feudal lord, who was generally 
non-resident, was only grumbled at in the abstract ; 
the monks were grumbled at in the concrete. Every 



LETTERS AND PAPERS, HENRY VIII. 355 

one who wished to raise his voice in protest as a re- 
former, in things ecclesiastical, political, or social, 
always denounced the monks, because he was sure 
of an approving audience. Doubtless the monks were 
the butts of many a medieval joke. They were not 
all of them unworldly, or temperate, or chaste ; and 
point vv^as added to an equivocal story by making its 
hero one of a class whose profession rendered his mis- 
chance more ludicrous. But neither the quips of the 
mediaeval jest-books nor the rhetoric of ecclesiastical 
reformers can be accepted as setting forth actual facts. 
The facts that can be gleaned tend to show that in 
England the monks, as a body, were above the ordinary 
standard of morality, but they were not so far above 
it as to be a moral force in the community. They 
were lazy, ignorant, self-indulgent and a hindrance to 
economic progress and ecclesiastical reform. 

The real interest of the dissolution lies in the 
cleverness of Cromwell. A political cynic might 
recommend the study of this period to the young 
politician. He would there be able to discover how 
to do arbitrary and violent deeds in a constitutional 
manner ; how to be villainous in a virtuous fashion ; how 
to use the thin end of a wedge ; how to educate 
public opinion ; how to get up a political cry ; and 
sundry lessons of a like sort. The first thing Cromwell 
did was to discover the full contents of the royal 
supremacy. When the papal jurisdiction was gone 
the visitation of the exempt monasteries fell into the 
King's hands. Cromwell began to exercise this power, 
and at the same time inhibit the bishops from their 
visitations during the royal visitation. Of course Crom- 



356 HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 

well knew his Cranmer, or he would not have ventured 
on issuing so entirely unconstitutional an order. Then 
the monasteries were visited by blustering officials, 
who browbeated the monks, treated them as criminals, 
laid upon them unheard of restrictions, and announced 
that they were ready to listen to any tittle-tattle 
which might be forthcoming from any quarter. 

This process was found tolerably successful. Mon- 
asticism was generally discredited. The monks, 
harassed and alarmed, were bewildered. The old 
landmarks were gone : they could not invoke the 
aid of the Pope ; it was useless to turn to the bishops, 
who quailed before the King. Cromwell was quite 
satisfied with the results of the visitation of the 
province of Canterbury, which seems to have ex- 
tended over a period of three months. The northern 
province was more rapidly dealt with. The distance 
between Lichfield and York only occupied Legh 
and Layton a fortnight. They knew what they 
wanted to find, and they found it. 



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